Questionable Content
by Purple.Chocolate.Stars
Summary: One of those make laughs, kick ass and fall in love kind of stories. Discontinued; Time skipped to last chapter. KuukaiXOC
1. Prologue: This Is Arisa

**Hello internet. So we meet again…in the world of Shugo Chara fanfiction! :D Of course, I went and hid this from you people for…a freakin' long time. ****So please enjoy, and just for the record, I have…13 chapters I need to add author's notes to now xD**

**I don't own Shugo Chara, or it's characters ( though I don't they show up yet…)**

The Colours of Love: Prologue 

This is Arisa

_One day, in the Hoshiko prefecture, Hoshiwa Arisa got ready in a flash, for the adventure of a lifetime…_

---

I turned the corner of the hallway, jumped onto the railing and slid my way down. That would be my last time I risk breaking a body part before I leave for Tokyo to go to Seiyu Academy and get the education that my parents wanted for me.

Ever since I was little, I went to the Hoshiko public school with all the kids in town. But now; I'm going to an academy! Plus, it'd be pretty awesome to go into the city for the first time in my life. Several months ago, my aunt who I'm going to be staying with sent me letters describing the city, and how much I'm going to love it there. I re-read the letters all the time and I have conducted the perfect mental image; super tall and shiny buildings everywhere and lots and lots of people.

Before I was born, my parents decided to move high up into the mountains in a small village filled with trees, plants and various animals in the area so they could do the proper research. My dad is a zoologist and veterinarian. He takes care of plenty of different animals and is in charge of the wildlife. Sometimes, when he brings home a sick animal to care for, my mom gets a spaz attack and it's totally hilarious! My mom is a botanist, she's always saying how much more important it is to care for the plants, which leads to a debate I'm forced to sit through. I'm going to miss all that.

As usual my dark brown, shoulder length, really annoying hair is tied in pig tails, and my bangs are on the side of my face, usually getting in my way when I run and junk. I really hate how it looks when it's down. Why? Simply because I end up looking super girly and totally wack. I hate it. There are only two people who have seen my hair down. And that's my mom and dad.(Unless there are people stalking me. That would be freaky on so many levels…)

I was wearing a purple t-shirt and dark green cargo pants with a silver, star key chain clipped to one of the belt straps. I keep my running shoes with me where ever I go, I mean; you never know when you have to run right? They're just simple navy, yellow and mainly white, but over the years I kind of made them turn a strange grey-ish, brown colour…

I landed on my feet with a 'thump' and turned the corner into the cream tiled kitchen. I grabbed the waffle sitting in the toaster and stuck it in my mouth taking a quick bite out of it. Sure I'm leaving crumbs everywhere, but I'm supposed to catch a train to Tokyo in an hour and still had so much to do! Urg, too much to do. When I finished my (amazingly delicious) toaster waffle, I hopped onto the kitchen counter and opened the top cabinet.

After digging past several items I finally found what I was looking for. A basket filled with delicious chocolate chip cookies that I made the night before. I jumped off the counter, and placed the basket on it as I quickly ran to the fridge and pulled the jug of orange juice out, unscrewing the cap quickly so my mom doesn't catch me-

"Arisa Hoshiwa! Don't you even think about drinking out of the jug again!! Do you have any idea how un-lady like that is?" I heard mom call from the top of the stairs.

Busted… I rolled my eyes at my mom as I screwed the cap back on, putting it back into the fridge and quickly snatched the basket off the counter and dashed out the door. If my parents found out I was out, instead of packing; …I'd prefer not to talk about that.

My mom's always had this issue with me to grow up like a 'proper lady'. I don't see what's wrong with being me. My dad doesn't mind it. But…that could be because he's a dude.

I ran as fast as my feet could take me when I finally reached the edge of the Western Forest, at the lump in the ground. Yes, we call it the 'lump in the ground.' And by 'we' I'm talking about my best friend Hiro Atashni. Hiro-kun may be 3 years older than me, but we've known each other since my whole life. He asked me to meet him here yesterday so he could give me a present before I leave. And just on time as usual; Hiro jumped into the clearing from a branch.

"I'm not late am I?" He asked laughing, as he dusted off his baggy orange shirt, and brown plaid shorts.

"You never are." I replied, smiling.

I noticed he was holding a box that was blue, covered in bright yellow stars, of all shapes and sizes.

"So, I'm not going to see you until next spring?" He asked somewhat awkwardly after some silence.

"Of coarse not dummy! I'm going to visit during Christmas and stay until a couple days before school starts up again." I reassured him brightly.

Hiro's short, messy black hair and clear teal eyes always reminded me of his very adventurous nature and…that he's usually the one getting hurt. He's amazing at math and is always attempting to help me with mine. Compared to him, I think my math would resemble a stein of dirt.

"Okay well, here's the present I promised!" He exclaimed, shoving the present in my arms, slightly avoiding my curious gaze.

I smiled brightly, wondering what on earth he had gotten me. Hiro had given me plenty of odd presents in the past; a toad, a bucket full of slime, socks, a jar of crackers, oven mitts, mushrooms, hand sanitizer and plenty of other things. So right now I'm hoping that once I open the box, it won't blow up and leave something nasty growing out of my face the next morning. Did I mention how he loves to 'experiment'?

I opened the box slowly leaning backwards as I did so. I glanced over at his eyes which seemed to be now, shining with excitement. I placed the star covered lid next to me and peeked into the box. I wordlessly gasped and gazed dreamily at the gigantic pile of lavender stationary covered in silver stars.

"I expect you to write at least once every week, alright Ari-kun?"

Salty tears collected in my eyes and hugged Hiro tightly. "I'm going to miss you so freakin much…" I mumbled into the fabric on his shoulder.

I remembered feeling his face heat up a bit, but that's just him. He can get 'close and personal' with just about any girl, but me. But if he did, I think I might have to punch his lights out. And we wouldn't want that to happen, now do we? The answer is no if you're mentally retarded, thanks.

Around here, I'm known as the girl who's good at almost every sport, the girl who can seriously eat (a lot) and a bunch of other abnormal things; for a girl at least. While most girls would love to have boys fight over them to date and, or like them, I get that same attention, except they fight over who wants me on their team for a game. Hopefully they have plenty of space in Tokyo for one more energetic ball of compressed sugar, like me.

We said our last good byes and I dashed home, hoping my parents didn't notice that I left.

I finally got home, ran up the stairs into my room and threw clothes (shirts shorts, and whatever else), hair ties, shampoo, my favourite stuffed rabbit, my toothbrush, a couple of CDs, my hairbrush (which I found under a pile of socks), Hiro's gift and everything I had packed the night before into a white suitcase with cool looking purple and black designs on it. I ran down the stairs, carrying the bag clumsily. I reached the hall closet and pulled my navy and purple roller skates and tied the laces together, so that I can carry them easier.

I took my camouflage baseball cap and placed it on my head. I adjusted my bags on my shoulders and double checked my wallet to make sure I had my ticket for the train, and enough money for food and any other stuff I'll need.

My parents waited patiently at the door for me, but I noticed a small box in my mother's arms.

"Arisa-chan, have a safe trip and don't forget to write." My dad told me, kissing me on the forehead lightly.

"I still don't understand why you call me '-chan'" I muttered somewhat bitterly.

Then I looked over at my mom who seemed to have started to cry.

"Come on mom! I won't even be gone that long! I'll be back before you know it." I reasoned giving her a comforting hug. She sniffed for a bit and finally handed me the small package in her arms. My eyes shined when I took in the view of a shiny, brand new digital camera in my hands.

"Take pleanty of pictures and send them to us, alright?" She asked me.

I nodded obediently at her words.

"And make sure you pay attention to your studies, keep organized, pay attention during your classes and please Arisa-chan," She looked at me worriedly, "At least try to be a bit more feminine in Tokyo."

I scowled playfully and responded, "I'll try mom, but I don't promise results."

Like I said, my mom's been on this issue ever since forever. She thinks I'll grow up as a boy, never get a boyfriend, never get married and never live happily ever after. Boys are stupid. They're annoying, loud, but a lot of fun to be around. Anyway, so she's trying to make me more 'feminine' And 'lady like.' Usually it leads to going shopping with her, and other girly stuff in which I don't feel like listing. Sure, I'll try. But I'm also known to be quite lazy and my best efforts usually don't go very far.

I turned towards the door front door, unlocked it, and then marching out proudly.

It was almost 11:00 AM on a Saturday. My ideal place to be at this time is in bed. But now, if I were in bed I'd honestly kill myself if I missed this train.

Tokyo, you better watch out watch out; Hoshiwa Arisa is on her way!

**Yaaaaay! **

**First chapter done! Who liked it? Who threw up? Let me know! :D**

**Please review, it'd mean a lot to me to know what you people think.**


	2. In the City

**Hi! Here's chapter…1? 2? I don't know really…I'm bad with numbers. Okay! Let's say this is chapter 1 (since the previous chapter was a prologue). But anyway, Read on people! The chapters can get pretty long…depending on my mood of course xD;**

**Shugo Chara and its characters are not mine. The only thing I own is Arisa, some other Ocs and my magical box called a computer. …And some Cheetos. **

The Colours of Love: Chapter 1

In the City.

Arisa stepped off the train onto the crowded platform of the central Tokyo train station. Glancing down, she double checked her had all her bags, her sweater and her hat. After verifying all her belongings were there, she pulled out a slip of paper from her pocket and read the address several times before stuffing it back into her pocket.

She wandered through a crowd onto the sidewalk. She glanced around nervously for a moment. It was the first time she was outside. And everything looked so…big. Yes, it was really tall and shiny and there were people all over the place, but the cars that crowded the streets were honking angrily at each other, the army people shoved their way through the crammed side walks and creepy ally-ways gave her the heebie-jeebies.

Arisa ran back into the train station and panted as she tried to catch her breath. The air here was heavier and a lot more polluted than the air back home. She collapsed on the ground leaning against a wall. Taking several deep breaths, she decided to ask someone where the address was and go from there. She stood up slowly and looked around.

'Information Desk.' That sounded pretty helpful.

She approached the desk fidgeting with the slip of paper in her hands. Her parents had told her that they arranged for her to stay with close family friends. They had a child around her age, but had not specified a gender for her.

"Excuse me, but do you know how I can get to this address?" She asked.

The woman stopped typing for a fraction of a second and glanced at the paper before replying, "It's really close; walking distance actually. Just go out the door, cross the street and go forward for 3 blocks. Take a right and it should be there."

"Um…thank you." Arisa replied, nodding unsurely and slipping away from the desk.

She took a deep breath and marched through the automatic doors bravely. She strained to remember what the woman had said; her memory wasn't exactly the best ever.

Out the door, cross the street…

Just the thought of her crossing the street sent panic throughout her body. But suddenly a crowd of people pushed her onto the street, as they too needed to cross the street. Then before you knew it, they had pushed her all the way to the other side of the street, and then dispersed back into individuals with a destination.

Now all she has to do is walk three blocks. But from where she was standing, three blocks looked more like thirty. So groaning in frustration, she journeyed on.

"Close my ass…that place is practically a million miles away." She muttered bitterly to herself.

On the last cross walk on the 3rd block, someone suddenly pushed her causing her to fall onto the hard concrete while being trampled by the army Tokyo commuters.

"Ow! Hey; watch where you're going!"

When the crowd subsided, she stood up, not noticing how the crossing light had turned red, after all, they never really had street lights in her town. Then suddenly there was a loud truck horn blaring in her ears. She saw the headlights only several meters away from her.

She raised her hands in front of her face, awaiting the impact, but it never came. Instead the truck driver had slammed down on the brakes at the last minute and successfully stopped mere inches away from her. Arisa shouted several quick apologies to the driver then ran back into the endless crowd of people.

She leaned up against an empty ally way, taking deep breathes in an attempt to calm herself.

"That was pretty intense…" she whispered to nobody in particular.

"I agree." A smooth, male voice responded to her statement.

She whipped her head around looking for the source of the anonyms voice. Suddenly her eyes found a boy about 15 or 16, wearing a dark grey high school uniform and dark blue hair and aquamarine eyes. He was sitting on the top of the building across from her, smirking down at her.

"Who the hell are you?" She demanded.

He smirked in response and jumped down to the ground somewhat weightlessly and walked up to her.

He backed her up to a wall before whispering, "You know, you're pretty cute when you're angry."

"I never asked what you think; I said I wanted to know who the hell you are." She told him with gritted teeth.

"And I like feisty girls…" In an attempt to bite her ear, she slapped him across the face and brought her elbow to his stomach.

"Get lost Sasuke wanna-be, I'm not interested in ass holes." She spat, sticking her tongue out at him as she marched away. For a moment, he just stared at her thinking, 'What the hell? Who's Sasuke?' Coincidentally, he actually asked the question.

"Who?"

This caused her to turn and look back at him, "Oh, Sasuke? He's the guy who's going to get beaten up by a 12-year-old girl if he doesn't get the hell away from me right now."

He smirked, "Well I'm glad I'm not that guy," he suddenly appeared in front of her, bending down placing his face dangerously close to hers and holding onto her shoulders making sure she couldn't move. "Well my name's Ikuto if you're wondering."

Rolling her eyes, she tried to shove him off, away from her. 'At least now I know who this loser is.'

Since she could barely move herself, she moved closer to him until his arms loosened and she was able to move her arms. Then she punched him square in the face and sent a spinning kick to his head once he backed away.

"When I tell you to get lost, I mean it. Got that I-ku-to?" She spat.

Hunched over, he silently smirked and disappeared into the shadows of the ally without her noticing. She leaned against the wall of the ally, trying to contemplate what had just happened.

Due to the rush of sudden events, Arisa had completely forgotten which direction she was headed in, how far she had walked and any other information that was supposed to help her get to her new home.

Sighing aloud, she stepped back into the crowd and wandered along the sidewalk, hoping to eventually, reach her destination.

After wandering past shop after shop, building after building, and person after person, she was exhausted. She wandered onto an empty walkway and decided to follow it and see where it leads. About half way down the path, she began to hear shouts, cheering and a whistle blowing.

Her head shot up from staring at the sidewalk and she started running out of pure joy of seeing some people who possibly won't trample her down. She quickly disposed of her finished chocolate filled drink in a garbage bin and started running in the direction of the noise.

Panting, she stood atop a small grassy hill staring down at a field where a game was going on; soccer.

Arisa adjusted her cap to shield her eyes from the sun better, but once one of the teams scored she reflexively threw her hat up in the air. Now she got really excited. She tried to contain her energy by sitting her self down after picking her hat up again, but as the game went on, she couldn't help but cheer and shout from her spot on the hill. At the last second the mid-fielder scored a goal and won the game for the team. Everybody went wild, including Arisa.

"YEAH; AWESOME WORK!!" She shouted down to the crowd.

Suddenly there was a shrill squeal coming from a group of girls chanting one name; Kuukai. Assuming that that was the name of the game saving mid fielder, Arisa had an out burst.

"GO KUUKAI!"

Her naturally projected voice caused the boy to turn and look in her direction. When their eyes met, her face suddenly flushed for a second before continuing to clap for him.

His autumn coloured hair was messy, wild and untamed, while his eyes were a soft, yet vibrant green with a tinge of yellow to them. He was sweaty from the game but she thought he actually looked…pretty cute. To this thought, she turned around and shook her head in a frustrated manner. 'Cute?! He's not cute…I can't think he's cute. I never even met him, plus I'm a tomboy. Tomboys don't like guys like that.'

After recollecting her thoughts, she turned back to face the field. To her cheering, he returned with a bright smile and his trade-mark thumbs up pose.

After the teams had shaken hands, she ran down the somewhat steep hill, making sure she doesn't fall and land on her face at the bottom. She approached him proudly with a dazzling smile on her face. Then suddenly she was pushed over into the dirt by a girl about her age with dark red hair that was perfectly curled and a group of girls following her.

"Kuukai-sama you were so great today" The leader giggled girlishly getting as close to him as possible without getting sweat on her clothes.

"Saaya…thanks." He replied looking somewhat nervous, or nauseous; she couldn't tell. After his eyes landed on Arisa's position on the ground he darted away from Saaya to Arisa, helping her up.

"Hey, are you alright? What happened to you?" He asked wiping a smudge of dirt off her face gently staring at her eyes.

"Me? I… uh…yeah. I'm fine." She replied, struggling to mentally and physically compose herself. After a while of him holding her, Arisa started to feel awkward, so she lightly pushed herself off of him and smiled. She mentally scolded herself, crossed her arms and gave the best 'no, I don't give a damn of what just happened' look.

Arisa looked over at Saaya who was absolutely fuming. She laughed nervously and began to walk away, but before she could, a tight grasp grabbed her arm and pulled her back.

"And where do you think you're going?!" Saaya snapped at her face.

"To find this address?" Arisa replied carelessly waving the slip of paper in the air loosely.

"I'm Yambuki Saaya, and I am not losing my beloved Kuukai-sama to…you! I mean just look at you! I wouldn't even call you female. You're a disgrace to girls everywhere." She glared at the Arisa harder than ever and snatched the paper from her hand ripping it into shreds.

"And you think I care? My gender has been mistaken one too many times and I don't mind." Arisa remarked, disregarding that the opposing female had taken a fairly important piece of paper.

Saaya looked offended; very offended. Then suddenly; she smirked.

Arisa's mouth formed an O as she watched the slip of paper get torn to shreds before her eyes and get blown away in the wind.

"Have fun sleeping in the streets tonight." Saaya told her before marching off with the groupies giggling evilly behind her.

After a long silence, Arisa finally exhaled deeply and said, "Well…that really sucks."

She adjusted the baseball cap sitting on her head and checked for her bags once more. She took a few steps forward before turning her head around to the somewhat forgotten Souma.

"By the way, my name's Arisa! I moved here from the Hoshiko prefecture and will be studying at Seiyu Academy for a year. I like sports, animals, hats and sweet things! I dislike snobs and obnoxious people." She smiled brightly, and then laughed. "That's my interdiction for my new school, do you like it?"

He laughed at this, then, almost instinctively, Kuukai said to her, "Since you don't have a place to stay, how about you come home with me?"

By now all of the other players had left the field and had gone home. The sun was beginning to set and the air began to cool itself and blow against their faces.

He stared at her; hopefully she would consider his offer. He had no bad intentions, but he was guessing she was raised to say no to boys who want to take her home with them, so-

"Alright," she replied bluntly.

For a moment he stared at her blankly thinking thoughts along the line of, 'Really? Seriously? Are you kidding?' But then after, he broke out of his trance and smiled cheerfully.

As they walked side by side down the nearly empty, an awkward silence consumed them. After an awkward cough, a sigh and the rustling of Arisa's bags against her hip, Kuukai finally said, "So…you're going to Seiyu Academy."

"Yup…my parents say it's a really good school." She replied.

"Well I can tell you; it is." He told her proudly.

She cocked an eyebrow at him, "So I'm guessing that you went there before?"

He nodded in response, "Yup; graduated last year."

For the time being, she couldn't think of a response for this and just left them in a silence. Then eventually, they reached his home.

"Oi; this is my place!" Kuukai exclaimed when they stopped at the front of a simple suburban house with a large garage door and stairs at the side that lead to the door.

As they walked up the driveway, she admired how wide and large the black pavement was. She also took note of the wooden gate that lead to a backyard.

She watched Kuukai hop up the stairs and followed suite.

Kuukai pulled out a shiny silver key and turned around to face her then explained, "We're supposed to be having someone over today, so I'm not sure how long you can stay, all right?"

She nodded. Before he could open the door, she forcefully turned him around at the same time pulling her camera out.

"Smile!"

Then click went the camera as it saved the face of Souma Kuukai.

"What was that for?" He asked, laughing.

"I wanted a memory of the dude who helped me find a place to stay while I'm in Tokyo!" She replied, also laughing.

After Kuukai opened the door Arisa poked her head inside the doorway and looked around. The enterance way was crowded with shoes of all sorts,

"Mom; I'm home! And I brought a friend who needs a place to stay, so can she stay for a day or two?" He called closing the door behind him.

Suddenly a woman about in her mid 40s burst out of the hallway carrying several cleaning supplies in her arm. She busily bustled around the sitting room, rearranging throw pillows, dusting the pictures on the wall and organized the games.

Sighing heavily, she replied, "Kuukai-kun, we don't have time for your friends to come over today. Arisa-chan is going to be here any second and-"She glanced up at her son and the girl next to him, causing her to freeze in mid-dust.

"Arisa? Hey, isn't that your name?" He asked turning towards the shocked girl behind her.

She shocked expression never changed, even when she cocked her head to the side, "…Souma-san?"

Kuukai's mother suddenly went ecstatic and pounced on Arisa, hugging her tightly.

"Oh my Arisa-chan, you've grown so much! You'll have a great time in Tokyo, Kuukai's going to be good and protect you from all the mean boys, you'll be going to a fabulous school with the cutest uniform, and everything will be great!" She exclaimed.

As she rambled on and on, Kuukai's dumbfounded expression changed when he finally realized one thing.

"Arisa's going to be staying….HERE?!?!"

**Well that was interesting wasn't it? :3 Tell me, cause I don't remember xD And I don't read my chapters over much as well…only after I post them! Reviews make the world go round, so please review!**


	3. The Souma Family

**I've got a question for you; what do you think of the title? When I published this, the title was supposed to have periods between each letter (just to make it look cool xD I doesn't stand for anything…yet.) but this fic actually has a few alternate titles xD**

**The Colours of Love (TCoL)**

**To Be Me**

**Falling from the Sky**

**And of course; A.R.I.S.A**

**The third option was made out of pure highness and over-dose of OJ, but then I liked it (I've got a good summary for it too…) So tell me if we should have a title change…and I'm going to make a poll on that now! xD –shot- **

**ANYWAY! You know the drill; read and review and ignore spelling grammer mistakes xD;**

The Colours of Love: Chapter 2

The Souma Family.

After a ruckus of shouts, questions and several more exclamations, the three had settles down and was now sitting at the kitchen table, each with a steaming sup of hot chocolate in each of their hands.

Kuukai's mother had introduced herself as Hana Souma, but insisted that Arisa just called her 'Hana.'

The group was currently about to discuss something 'fairly important' as Hana explained, but suddenly the door burst open and 3 boys, older than Kuukai tumbled messily into the room.

"I WIN!" Two of them shouted in unison.

"Boys! Behave yourselves, we have a guest." She scolded.

Each one of them were slightly different from the one before. The tallest one (supposedly the oldest) out of the 3 had similar shaggy black, brown hair and a pair of glasses that framed his green eyes. The one next to him had dirty blonde hair and green eyes, and finally the last one had aqua shaded eyes and rust coloured hair that went past his ears and ended just before his shoulders.

"Sorry, but they wanted to see if they got any faster…so we decided to race." replied the oldest of the three, regaining his composure from his spot on the ground.

The other two had waltzed over to where Arisa was sitting, surrounding her with playful smirks on their faces.

"So Kuukai, who's your friend?" The blonde one asked.

"You two weren't caught doing anything were you?" Asked the other.

As Arisa flushed red at the sudden realization, you could clearly hear Kuukai's forehead come in impact with the aged wooden table as he groaned loudly.

"Guys, get away from her…" He said, voice being muffled by the table that was effectively hiding the maroon flush on his face.

Sighing, they each moved away, giving Arisa the breathing space she desperately needed.

"As protective as ever over his things," the younger one muttered.

Hana deeply sighed and shook her head at the three males in front.

"Why don't you introduce yourselves to her instead of trying to charm her," she told them, with a hidden threat in her voice.

"Souma Rento! The second youngest brother, pleased to meet you," he declared giving her a friendly wave.

"Souma Unkai. Third oldest, it's an honour." The blonde said, raising his index and middle finger up into a peace sign.

"Souma Suusui, charmed I'm sure." Finished the last, nodding at her in acknowledgment.

"My eldest son had just left to go to university, so Unkai, who used to share a room with Kuukai, moved into Suusui's room, so you can share a room with Kuukai," Hana explained.

"Ah, mom! If you told me a GIRL was going into my old room, I would've cleaned it up…" Unkai exclaimed.

"Porno," coughed Rento, then smirking as he watched his older brother's face tint pink.

Shooting a look at her sons, Hana continued, "And tomorrow, Kuukai doesn't have school so he'll show you around Tokyo, won't you Kuukai-kun?"

Finally noticing that he had left the room, they heard a crash coming from his room. Suddenly, his door burst open revealing Kuukai and about 4 boxes; each labelled, 'PRIVATE"

"I got Unkai's porno out, so she could sleep properly all right?" Kuukai explained shrugging his shoulders as he made his way back to his original spot at the table.

The family, plus Arisa all say down in the living room and were discussing, rules for the house.

"No TV until you finish your homework."

"Always knock before entering the bathroom."

"No wondering around town without someone with you."

"Don't go into my-"

"Our."

"-Our room."

"Don't hog the bathroom at night."

"Share the pancakes."

"And most importantly…"

"Don't bring any boys home with you?" Questioned Rento, laughing.

"No Rento," Hana sighed, "Make sure you're with Kuukai at all times."

All Arisa could do was simply nod at everything the family was saying to her. After finally comprehending all the rules, Kuukai and Arisa were quickly dragged into the closest room along with Arisa's bags.

"We'll leave you alone to unpack and get to know each other better and such." And with that, they closed the door and left the two in silence.

From their side of the door they could hear Unkai saying, "'Get to know each other better?' Mom isn't that what dates are for?"

They both rolled their eyes in sync and Arisa began unpacking her bags.

The room she currently sat in had two twin sized beds at either sides of the room with messily made light blue sheets, a closet in a corner overflowing with sports equipment, and an end table in the middle of the two beds cluttered with a variety of things, plus a the middle of the two beds were a large window with simpe green curtains with a view of the Souma's backyard.

The first thing that she pulled out was a purple and grey rabbit with long floppy ears and a slightly limp body.

"Lappy-chan!!~ Was the ride okay? I'm glad you're alright!" She squealed, hugging the plush tightly against her chest.

On the other side of the room, Kuukai sweat dropped and stared at her strangely. Noticing the look she was receiving, she stuck her tongue out at him playfully.

"Don't make fun of Lappy-chan!"

"I'm not making fun of…Lappy-chan." He muttered in response.

Next, she decided to leave most of her clothes in the bag, and pulled out her hairbrush, a set of teal pyjamas, and the present she received from Hiro the day before.

"What's that?" Kuukai asked, walking to her side of the room, crawling onto my bed next to the box.

"A present," she said, pulling out the first slip of paper from the box. After digging around the mess on the end table, she found a working black pen and began to write.

-

Hiro,

Hiiii!~ How're you holding up without me? I miss you a lot, and so does Lappy-chan.

So today I almost got hit by a truck, raped by a blue haired stranger, and numerous other ways that scarred me for life. Urg, hopefully you're doing better than I am. But the bright side is that I found the place I was staying at. Man, the paper is really pretty and sparkly! So, I'm about to go to sleep. Still need to change…and take a shower because I STINK. I'm starting school in a couple days; wish me luck and…don't blow anything up without me, you got that?!

--Arisa-chan 3

-

"You done?" Kuukai asked," Get your clothes, I'll show you how the shower works; it's known to try to eat people alive." He finished, snickering.

Arisa laughed nervously in response and grabbed her clothes and undergarments wrapped in a towel and followed Kuukai across the hall into the bathroom.

He showed her the hamper for dirty laundry, where she can put her things, and how the shower works, and most importantly, how to make sure that the shower doesn't blow up.

After obediently following him around the small and slightly cramped space, there was an awkward silence. Arisa cocked an eyebrow at him with her clothes in hand and coughed.

"You can leave now." She stated.

"Right! Don't take too long, I need you to get up early so I could show you around tomorrow." He replied scratching the back of his head sheepishly.

Kuukai walked out of the room and closed the door behind him. When he heard the lock of the door click, he continued back into his room. He pulled out grey sweatpants and a baggy green sports jersey. After quickly changing his pants and throwing the dirty pair into the laundry hamper in his room, he lifted his shirt halfway before the door burst open.

Then, in came Arisa wearing her pyjamas and screaming a little too loudly.

"AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH" She screamed, diving into her bed.

Kuukai glanced at the bathroom door just in time to watch a black coloured bug scamper out into the hall way, but then was casually swept away by the passing broom held by his mother, who was humming a tune as she swept the halls. Next, his attention was turned to the young girl, cowering beneath the covers of her bed from the creature.

Her scream had echoed throughout the apartment and gotten the attention of the other family members, causing them to once again; crash through the doorway of the room yelling, "What happened?!"

The three other brothers looked from Kuukai who was standing, to Arisa; shaking under the covers of her bed.

Suddenly anime dots filled the air and Rento burst out, "Kuukai, what did you do?"

Kuukai flushed red and quickly replied flustered, "No! It's not like that? Did you not hear her screaming?"

Unkai snickered and nodded to his question, "So, what did you do?"

"No-thing. Just go ask Arisa…under there." Kuukai continued.

Suusui cocked an eyebrow at his youngest brother and walked towards Arisa, having his other two siblings follow closely behind. He slowly lifted the covers revealing her face, with her eyes shut tightly. Suddenly, once she noticed the light all she could think of was to scream.

And that's what she did.

"COKROACH!!!" The sudden burst of loud noise caused the siblings to cringe and quickly cover their ears with their hands. Arisa took a hold of the blanket and covered her head once again.

More anime dots.

"Well we learn something new everyday..." Rento began.

"Arisa-san is terrified of cockroaches…" said Unkai.

"She has a deafening voice." Suusui continued.

"And now, we need to figure out how to get her out from under the covers." Kuukai finally finished.

The 4 of them gazed at the bundle of shaking covers atop the bed, then at each other. After moment, after moment, after moments of silence; they heard their mom call from the kitchen, "Cookies!!"

Before the three boys could rush to the kitchen for the treat, a flash of teal zipped past them and into the kitchen.

Stunned for the moment, they finally made their way quickly to the table, where Arisa was happily nibbling away at a chocolate chip cookie in her hands.

"New discovery?" Questioned Suusui.

"Arisa-san loves cookies." Kuukai laughed as he speedily joined her at the table, carefully taking a cookie from the burning hot tray.

"My, my, you two are so impatient!" Hana exclaimed when she approached the table.

"Sorry mom." Kuukai replied, wiping cookie crumbs from his mouth.

"Arigatou Hana-san." Arisa said with a mouthful of cookie.

The three other boys had already sat themselves down at the table and helped themselves at a cookie of their own. Hana smiled contently and preceded to the largest room in the house; her own, leaving the crowd to munch on their cookies.

"Kuukai-sempai?" Arisa began.

"You don't have to call me by 'semapi' Arisa," Kuukai replied cocking an eyebrow at her, "So what is it?"

"What time will I have to wake up tomorrow?" She shyly asked, blinking her eyes at him innocently.

He thought for a moment, "Let's see…I have a soccer game tomorrow, but you don't have to come-"

"Can I come, can I come? Please, please, pretty please?!" She suddenly interrupted.

"My, Arisa is eager to see you play Kuukai," Unkai stated.

"Any thoughts on that?" Rento added as Suusui simply rolled his eyes at his two 'immature' brothers.

Perverted would be a better word, wouldn't it?

Kuukai tore part of his cookie off and launched it at his older brother, who caught it in his mouth with ease.

"I was just teasing you little brother." Unkai said smirking.

Then just before another argument could emerge, Arisa yawned, stretching in her chair causing all the boys to stop in mid-bicker and look at her as her eyes shut themselves, and her entire body collapsed onto the table with a thunk.

"That would be our cue to go to bed," Suusui declared, adjusting his glasses then swiftly grabbing two of his brothers by the arm and dragging them to their proper rooms, leaving Kuukai along in the room with a fast asleep Arisa.

Of course he knew exactly what his…queer brothers were doing. And Suusui was just trying to make sure they didn't absolutely kill themselves as they did so. So Kuukai decided to just go along with it. What harm could be done?

Carefully, he slid his arms around Arisa and lifted her from the chair, being surprisingly light.

The young Souma tiptoed into his room, being careful not to wake the slumbering girl in his arms. Just as he began to set her down on her bed, he felt a tug on his sleeve. He glanced in the direction where the motion was coming from and noticed that Arisa had grabbed onto his shirt.

'Of course' he thought. 'This kind of thing always happens to the guy who decides to carry the mysteriously cute girl who you meet out of pure coincidence'

He succeeded in laying her on the bed, but could not abolish her grip on his shirt. So for a while he just sat next to her bed, hoping she would let go…soon.

But that was not the case. Actually, Kuukai had fallen asleep for an hour or so, leaning against her bed post and now there was a nasty uncomfortable feeling in his back. Yet the grip on his shirt had not subsided one bit.

After rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he slowly pulled the shirt over his head, leaving it in the hands of the sleeping Hoshiwa. He then made his way over to the light switch and flipped the lights off. For a moment he stretched and properly shut the door, then finally crawled into his covers; notably colder than he normally is. But he still didn't note how he had called Arisa cute.

**Poll is all set up :D and I'll deal with the summary later xD;**

**And…I realize Kuukai and co. lives in a house. But guess who's too lazy to change this! xD And this chapter was written far before they showed that manga chapter so I apologize for that ^^;;**


	4. Exploring Tokyo, and Yourself

**Enjoy the chapter! It's freakin long so…hopefully it doesn't bore you xD;; And remember to review :3**

**Now wait patiently as I spam all your email boxes today!**

**Shugo Chara! Belongs to Peach-Pit. I'd want it, but they can KEEP Amu.**

The Colours of Love: Chapter 3

Exploring Tokyo, and yourself

That night, Arisa dreamt of…everything; toaster waffles, soccer, Lappy-chan, skating, Hiro, her new school, the Souma family, and strangely enough; Kuukai.

For some reason, she got out of bed willingly this morning. Before getting up, she glanced at the clock that read '8:00 AM' She sighed aloud knowing that it would be near impossible to go back to sleep now that she's awake, so she decided to go ahead and raid the kitchen.

As her bare feet came in contact with the cold kitchen tiles, she had a sudden surge of energy and dashed for the cupboards. She rummaged through the contents, until she laid her hands on a rectangular box about the size of a cereal box. But this box was much greater than cereal; this box; was a box of pancake mix.

-

Kuukai finally opened his eyes sleepily. He sat up and ran his hand through his slightly coarse, rust coloured hair, yawning. His eyes roamed over to the bed opposite to him. The blanket and pillows were in a mess, but Arisa was no where to be found. His eyes widened in realization.

Arisa was no where to be found.

He threw his covers off, after hearing the faint sound of humming and sizzling coming from the kitchen. The young Souma quickly dashed into the hallway which led to the kitchen. His eyes darted around quickly, but soon met the body of Arisa standing by the stove happily, but clumsily flipping a pancake.

Her hair was still tied in pig tails from the night before, and her bangs were an absolute mess. Over her pyjamas she wore a small blue apron that he never knew he owned. Overall, she looked cute; really cute.

Silently laughing to himself, he approached her running a hand through his hair getting the bed-knots out.

"Morning sunshine," he greeted cheerfully.

Arisa quickly twisted her body around at the sound of his voice.

"Kuukai-sempai! You're-" She interrupted herself when she squeaked in surprise at the sight of him. His hair was an absolute mess from sleeping, his pants baggy from the previous night and…simply put it; he wasn't wearing a shirt.

Her eyes widened and she darted her body back around to face the stove, with her hands covering her reddening face.

"Arisa-san, what's wrong?" He asked innocently leaning over her shoulder.

"K-Kuukai-sempai," she stuttered. "Would you kindly…please, put a shirt on?"

Her face had flushed several shades of dark maroon, and wasn't letting up one bit. She bit her lip in hopes not to make a sound. Then after a mind numbing silence he replied, "Oh! I knew something was off," and with that he disappeared into the bedroom to change.

'What on earth happened?! That idiot should've put a shirt on before leaving the room. But it's still strange; I've gone swimming with plenty of boys before. Why should this one be different?!' She wondered in her head.

As she flipped the final pancake and when she was finally able to recollect her thoughts, she was hugged from behind.

"I have a shirt on; can I have a pancake now?" Kuukai whispered in her ear.

She forcefully dismissed he blush on her cheeks and sourly replied, "Well unless you want to collapse during your game today, duh."

He released her from his grasp and walked over to the sturdy wooden table, feeling accomplished. He then noticed a note on the table.

"Went out to do errands. Your brothers are with me. –Mom"

He glanced up from the note, "Looks like we're alone for the day," he reported as a plate covered in steaming pancakes covered in maple syrup was placed in front of him.

"Enjoy," she chirped as she greedily dug into her own plate that had at least double the amount on his.

After they finished eating (which didn't take very long) they both dashed into the bedroom each snatching their clothes. Then a silence arouse and finally, Kuukai awkwardly made his way across the hall and into the bathroom to change into his soccer jersey, leaving Arisa to change and shutting the bed room door behind him.

Arisa hurriedly pulled off her pyjamas and discarded them in a small pile in the courner of the room. She then pulled on a pair of army pants and a ginger coloured t-shirt covered in golden stars. After re-tying her pigtails, she exited the room seeing Kuukai with his equipment bag hanging on his shoulder, hopping on one foot trying to tie his shoe.

As usual, she couldn't help but laugh at the sight and made her way over to him. She quickly found her own shoes in the pile and slipped them on, but not before giving him a playful push, making him tip over and fall to the ground with a laugh. Kuukai had finally put on both his shoes and suddenly declared that they were going to be late.

"How fast can you run?" Kuukai demanded once they reached the lobby.

"Pretty fast. Wh-" But before she could reply, she was grasped by the hand was dragged into a full out sprint.

With that sprint they arrived at the school grounds within minutes. Arisa playfully fell over on the ground out of exhaustion.

"That was totally wicked!" She laughed.

"Don't laugh too hard." Kuukai instructed, panting, "You'll run out of air."

Arisa sat up and brushed the dirt from her shirt, "Have a good game," she stated glancing past him at his team who was impatiently waiting for him.

He gave a look of realization, grabbed his bag and dashed over.

Watching him leave, she got up and spotted an empty seat in the bleachers and made her way towards it.

Throughout the game Arisa was filled to the brim with energy. She cheered wildly along with the crowd around her as her eyes frantically followed the young Souma along and across the field.

At the end, Seiyu's team had lost by a point that the other team had been scored at the last second, but the entire team (and Arisa) agreed that they all played a great game none the less. She got a quick picture of the team and also one of Kuukai in his soccer uniform.

After Kuukai wiped most of his sweat off his head and got a drink of water he waved Arisa over, "Since we're here, shall I show you around the school?"

Of course, she agreed and he led her across the field into Seiyu Academy grounds.

He led her to the main building and pulled the door open. The school was usually open to students who want to finish extra work. They stepped inside and Arisa's eyes widened in amazement.

The halls were long and fairly wide. There were only a handful of students roaming the halls on their day off, heading to the library or a classroom. Most of them weren't in their uniforms, but simple casual clothes with a stack of books in their arms. Sunlight shone through the windows that lined the hallways which made the hardwood floor glow a golden honey colour.

He led her around the first floor, showing where the lockers were and how not to get trampled by the morning rush of students.

Next he led her to the first flight of stairs which led to most the classrooms. As they walked down the halls, several students greeted the elder Souma with a wave and a smile; others would full out call his name across the hall and waving frantically. Kuukai responded to them generally with the same wave and charming smile.

Along one of the halls, as she glanced around she heard Kuukai call out to someone.

"Nikaidou-sensei!"

She spotted a teacher, whose carroty, orange hair was tied in a low ponytail and glasses were just about to come off. He was carrying a monstrous pile of books and once he reached them he fell over dropping the books, which scattered all over the floor.

Kuukai laughed and bent down helping the teacher and Arisa followed suit.

Both Nikaidou and Kuukai noticed that whenever Arisa picked up a book, she examined it's contents before placing it into a pile. When they finished, they handed Nikaidou their piles of books and he smiled warmly at them, thanking them.

"So what do you think of your future homework, Hoshiwa-san?" Nikaidou asked.

Her cheeks tinted red, and she suddenly became uneasy; she was always uneasy when talking to teachers.

"Well, it's all pretty new to me…" she muttered.

Arisa looked up nervously at her future sensei's face. His eyebrows had creased together and his eyes looked extremely focused on the ceiling. She was guessing he was thinking about something.

"Well I'm sure you'll do fine, but if you don't I'm going to contact your parents and see if I can assign you a tutor, alright?"

All she could think of doing was nod in response.

'A tutor? I've always had pretty good marks, but that's probably because the lessons in Tokyo are much harder than homeschooling. If the work is as hard as I actually think it is, I'll never pass, and never get to that school…' She thought. Arisa was so caught up in her thoughts that she didn't realize that Nikaidou had bid them farewell and continued to his destination.

Kuukai took her by the arm and they continued on the tour.

In one hallway, several groups of students whispered to each other as the duo walked by them. Arisa was able to catch several words like, "together," "girlfriend," and "couple." But once she heard 'love' she snapped and turned to the hall of gossiping kids.

"We're not together. I'm not his girlfriend. We're not a couple, and most defiantly," she paused, "We aren't in love."

After sending fearsome glares at the groups in the hallway, she felt a grip on her arm.

"Let it go. Rumours around here are as common as breathing. You'll get used to it eventually." Kuukai told her in a hushed voice, attempting to calm her down.

She took several deeps breaths and swiftly turned her back to the crowd and walked away, bumping her shoulder with the Souma.

When they walked into an empty hallway, Kuukai audibly sighed and approached her. Her bangs were hanging over her eyes, and her pigtails drooped lower than usual.

"Arisa-san…?" He asked. His voice was so careful, like if his voice was too loud, or harsh she would shatter into a million pieces.

Suddenly, she tossed her head back, and groaned loudly which echoed throughout the empty hallway.

"I hate being gossiped about. It's the single most annoying thing **ever**." She groaned.

He stared at her and sighed. "How about we get out of here?" he suggested.

After Arisa swept her bangs away from her face, she smiled somewhat weakly at him and nodded.

They made their way down the same flight of stairs near the main entrance. Arisa noticed someone familiar to her. What was her name again? Sayo? Soota? Saayot?

"…Saaya-sama?" On of the girls around her had whispered.

Saaya; that's what it was.

From her spot on the stairs, she over heard the conversation going on with Saaya and her cronies. Some stuff about hair, shoes shopping and other pointless gibberish that Arisa could have less time for.

Saaya and her group were moving up the stairs, and she and Kuukai were going down, so she was doomed to hear at least part of their non-stop, incoherent chatter.

She tried keeping a straight face, but as they passed, Arisa heard one word that caught her attention.

"..Kuukai-sama…"

This caused her eyes to widen for a fraction of a second, but quickly composed herself. Sadly, her shoelaces were conveniently untied. Kuukai had already slid down the railing carelessly and land with a thump when his feet came in contact with the ground.

She decided to try sliding down the railing herself, forgetting about her laces. But as she dashed for the railing, her shoelace was caught on something making her crash down the stairs, landing on her stomach.

As she tumbled down the steps, she heard a shrill scream. It wasn't from her that's for sure. Arisa used her arms to push herself off the ground and looked around her.

Several feet away, was the group of girls crouched down around something exclaiming shouts of concern.

Kuukai frantically rushed over to her, helping Arisa up on her feet.

"You good?" He asked.

Brushing off the imaginary dirt off her pants she replied, "I'll live."

Suddenly they heard a shout coming from the crowd of girls.

"What is the matter with you?!" Saaya demanded, fuming. Her clothes have been wrinkled and her hair had become a mess thanks to the fall.

"Sorry 'bout that…I didn't think you'd step on my shoelaces." Arisa replied sheepishly.

"You better be sorry! You...you…BITCH."

Arisa's eyes widened at this statement. Either she was calling a female dog (Parents are animal experts) or that…bad one. Her guess was on the bad one.

"Calm down. It was an accident," Arisa responded putting her hands up, thinking it would shield her from Saaya's ever-growing anger.

"I bet you did this to me on purpose! As revenge for last time!! Why are you still with Kuukai anyway?! He's supposed to be mine! All mine!" She screamed.

Arisa stepped back, with a look of fear on her face. She's never made anyone this mad before in her life.

"I wish you could just die! Boys will never like you and never will. You're going to die a lonely, sad, single death!" She exploded, "And hopefully, it'll be soon," she muttered under her breath before stomping away with her cronies following closely behind.

"Arisa-san?" Kuukai asked unsurely.

Her mind was racing with thoughts that were strange and new to her. 'Single? Alone? What about Kuukai?' She had thought she full out lost her mind at that thought. Suddenly she heard Kuukai say her name.

When she turned her head up, and smiled weakly at the Souma.

"Are you-"

"I'm alright. Just forget about it." She interrupted.

The two of them walked to the entrance of the school in silence. Suddenly Kuukai burst out, "You like skating, don't you?"

When she looked up, she looked completely different. Her chocolate shaded eyes shone with excitement and she had an eager smile on her face. "Hell yeah I do!"

He suddenly took her by the hand and pulled her forward, making her run, once again. "Then you'll love the next stop on the super awesome; Souma tours!" He called over his shoulder to Arisa who was still beaming.

After running for a while, they were forced to stop at one of the crosswalks. Arisa really wanted to ask where they were going, but they were too busy catching their breath. When she finally caught her breath, she was about to ask, but the crossing light turned white and she was pulled into another sprint.

After many crosswalks and even more running, they finally arrived at the front of a large arena, with a huge sign at the front that read 'Tokyo Arena'

"I go here to practice other sports, and sometimes I come to visit one of my friends," he explained as he pulled the door open and ushered her in.

The inside of the stadium was even larger than it looked on the outside. There was a basketball court on one side, with glass walls, an indoor swimming pool at the end of the hall, a large snack bar with tables, chairs and stools that went along the counter, a booth where they sold tickets and most importantly; the ice rink.

"Stay close," he instructed. All she could do was nod as her eyes ran around the large room leading to others. A lot of things she had never seen before. Like a large snack bar with pink and blue puff balls being sold, large neon lights and even stairs that moved.

Eventually, Kuukai led her through the door at the farthest end of the building. When they entered, Arisa shivered in delight, finally knowing where he had taken her; the ice rink.

Even though she would normally wear at least a sweater when she is skating, she felt right at home with the temperature that surrounded her.

Her eyes darted around curiously, taking in the bleachers, the rink and even the soda machines.

As they walked along the top of the bleachers, Arisa curiously asked Kuukai monstrous amounts of questions about the things that surrounded her.

"How would they keep the ice frozen inside?"

"What are the benches for?"

"What on earth is that?"

On her last question, she pointed at a van sized vehicle gliding along the ice, leaving strips of the ice shimmering and smooth.

"That's a zamboni. After people skate on it making it rough and stuff, it drives over the ice to smooth it out." He explained leaning against the ledge of the walls surrounding the ice.

Arisa's eyes had widened in shock at this.

"Wow…that's awesome," she said breathlessly.

He smiled brightly. That smile never ceased to amaze her. No matter how many times she's seen it, and will see it, it's just as dazzling and charming as the last. And just for the record, unknown to her knowledge, it made her heart suddenly beat faster and butterflies arise in her stomach.

Then from the other side of the rink, she heard someone call out to them. Well, to Kuukai.

"Kuukai-kun! Over here!" The person called.

At the sound of the girl's voice, she noticed Kuukai smile, which made her stomach churn strangely. He lead over to the girl who was sitting behind a counter that was next to a wall with 'Skate Rentals' painted on it in large blue and orange bubble letters.

She looked about 15, long teal hair that was tied in a low, messy ponytail and indigo eyes.

"Hey Kuukai, what brings you to Tokyo Arena today?" She asked casually.

Kuukai shrugged, "Not much, but I'm showing my friend around town and I figured she'd like it here."

Arisa watched her brows shoot upwards in surprise. "Does your friend have a name?"

"Hoshiwa Arisa; nice to meet you!" Arisa chirped at the older girl, raising her index and middle finger into a peace sign.

"Arisa's here for school for a year and she'll be staying with me.

"Well the fact that she'd like it here is an understatement! You'll love it here." She announced proudly. "The name's Sachiko Ashidana. Welcome to Tokyo!"

She stretched her arm out and offered to shake hands, which Arisa delightfully accepted.

The walls of the arena were painted with numerous designs that looked 'messily stylish' as Sachiko called it. And wooden benches line the walls along with hangers and small lockers.

"Sachiko-san, do you work here?" Arisa asked after watching the zamboni clean the ice for a bit.

"Only when my dad's busy; this is quite often now. But it's alright. I like spending time at the rink, but I should warm you…" She leaned forward and glanced from side to side making sure no one was within ear shot (besides Kuukai.)

"Watch out for the figure skaters. They may look like perfect princesses on ice, but on land," She shuddered. "They're horrible."

Arisa couldn't help but wonder what 'horrible' was.

"Sachi, is the ice free?" Kuukai asked, leaning against the counter.

She swiftly spun around on the rolling chair she was sitting on and pulled out a piece of paper from under a pile of even more paper. Sachiko's violet eyes quickly scanned the paper before looking up at the duo.

"Well, it's actually fun skate right now. So anyone who gets a ticket would be aloud to skate. Are you guys up for it?" She reported, shrugging her shoulders and leaning back on her chair.

Kuukai glanced worriedly at Arisa, who in turn looked at him, "I'll take a pair of size 7 hockey skates." Arisa said cheerfully.

A smile broke out onto Sachiko's face and she darted up from her seat.

"Size 7 hockey skates, coming right up!"

They watched Sachiko whiz through and door and come rushing in with a pair of two pairs of skates in her hands.

"Arisa-san's size 7's and Kuukai-kun's usual." She said, placing the skates on the counter. "And since its Arisa's first time, it'll be on me."

Kuukai smiled brightly, "Thanks Sachi."

The zamboni left the ice, and Kuukai and Arisa went over to go tie their skates.

As Arisa began tying her second skate, a group of 4 girls walked in from the bleachers.

They each walked with their heads held high, and hips swayed from left to right as they marched.

There were four girls in the group; one had bright, pink hair and clear, peach skin, with a lot of eye liner surrounding her eyes and a pair of stylish pink and black skates slung behind her back. The girl next to her who looked like she was babbling to nothing, leaning over with a bright smile on her face, had light emerald hair tied in a sloppy bun and a pair of sky blue skates in her arms and was wearing, what looked like random clothes, but looked really cool together . The third was wearing a rainbow coloured skating outfit, complete with rainbow streaks in her hair and paint splattered skates who was staring at the rink with a longing look on her face.

Finally the 'leader' was dressed all in a shimmering gold skating outfit and a matching gold skating bag with; you guessed it, gold skates. She was golden-haired, had ember eyes and her skin was perfect. In Arisa's opinion, she was the definition of perfect. She stood proudly in the middle of the group around her, practically ignoring them all.

She noticed Sachiko, who was sitting behind the counter with her feet up, glance up boredly from her magazine, and then looked back down. She then turned her head to the left of her and looked at Kuukai, who gave, vividly, the same reaction as Sachiko.

After the zamboni gates closed, Sachiko jumped over the counter of her booth and jogged over to the gate to the ice. After undoing the lock, she tugged at the door harshly and after several tries it banged open.

Arisa had quickly finished tying her skates. She was a natural at it after all. She's been skating for as long as she could remember, but her memory wasn't that great anyway so we have no idea where that'll go. But one thing she always hated about skating; learning how to stop.

Her favourite memory of all time was learning how to skate when she was little. Since her parents were always working, Hiro stepped in and tried teaching her. Tried.

They always practiced on the pond outside her house which froze over perfectly every year.

Sadly Hiro wasn't the greatest teacher at the time, being only 9, and herself being 6. After he caught a cold, his parents forbade him from going outside for weeks; even after he got better.

But luckily for her, in time, she was able to do almost every basic skating skill perfectly, but could never stop no matter how much she tried. And that usually lead to her either tripping over her own feet, crashing into a tree or falling head first into a pile of snow.

Eventually, she got it, but fell over for one last time after jumping up and down in joy on the ice.

Back with our present Arisa, Kuukai had finished tying his skates, and so had the group of girls. There were a handful of other people too; all of different ages. From a small group of little kids, and a group of girls who seemed to recognize Kuukai, and a couple sitting in the bleachers.

Kuukai stood up next to her and they walked over to the gate which had been opened.

Arisa's first step on the ice was clumsy and careful. She even had to hold on to the ledge, which surrounded the ice. For a moment she wondered if she had forgotten how to skate. All of her hard work (and bruises) would've gone to a horrible waste.

Kuukai, who was gliding around with ease, glanced over at her struggling. Her lips were in a thin line and her arms were clenched onto the ledge for balance. After considering his options, he swerved around to face her.

"What ever happened to being a natural?" He joked, with his hands in his pant pockets.

She smiled sheepishly to his question and replied, "Well I can only skate during the winter since we never really had an indoor rink. So, it's been a while…" She trailed off at the end of her sentence, trying to regain her balance which looked like she was just about to lose.

Just then, her legs gave out from under her and she slipped backwards.

'Just like old times…' she thought awaiting the impact of the rock hard ice. But it never came.

Instead, she was captured in strong arms that held her protectively making her breath hitch in her throat and her heart beat to accelerate. Arisa's tanned eyes had squeezed shut, then after hearing the reassuring voice of Kuukai she opened them once again.

"Are you alright Arisa-chan?" He asked in a worried tone.

He was sitting on his knees which could've shown that he had slid to catch her fall. Her back was against his strong chest and his arms were rested around her waist.

His voice had wisped past her ear. The slight breeze caused her to shiver and slightly squirm in place.

Arisa could notably feel the crimson blush creeping through her skin and into her cheeks. As she struggled to compose her mind, she was suddenly picked up by his strong arms and lifted to her feet. Kuukai held her close, next to him.

"Take it easy will you?" He asked her after re-adjusting his grip around her stomach.

The blush on her face darkened (if it was possible) and her flustered mind couldn't grasp what was happening. Her vision was slightly blurred and as it began to focus once more, she watched as little, blurry blobs of colour dance around the ice gracefully.

When Arisa finally regained her sight, the previous 'blobs' cleared to reveal the group of girls that she had seen walking into the rink before.

They swerved every which way, jumping, spinning and gliding with grace and, as Arisa puts it 'pretty-ness' But honestly, they looked pretty cool; each with their own style.

"They're pretty good aren't they?" Kuukai suddenly asked, pushing forwards on his skates gently, making her glide with him.

Arisa simply nodded in response and gazed at them for a long time and eventually, she focused back onto figuring out skating again.

Then finally, after about twenty minutes of small pushes and very, very sad cross over's (A/N: Basically, it's when you cross your legs over each other to turn on corners when skating.) her strides were strong and she was even able to out-skate Kuukai.

They chased each other around the ice, laughing and occasionally yelling. But their fun only lasted so long, before Arisa crashed into the worst person at the moment.

They each yelped in surprise, and fell to the ice. Our own Arisa had just crashed into the 'golden' leader of those girls.

She screeched, shot several angry glares at Arisa and quickly stood up and composed herself before anyone really noticed. Her three friends skated over, and surrounded her, making sure she was alright and such.

The leader looked her up and down with a look of disapproval.

"I see you're new, and we were never introduced. I'm Yame Rika, and this is my group, and this is my ice. So please let me know what you're doing with Kuukai, and why are you such a klutz." She boldly stated, scoffing.

Arisa's eyes widened, but squinted together after hearing this 'Rika' person insult her skating. Before she could voice her come-back, the rest of the group's voices pitched in.

"I'm Hope (A/N: Pronounced 'Hoh-pay') Mei, just stay out of my way and we'll…maybe get along," stated the girl with bright pink hair, a long black long sleeved shirt under a pink t-shirt, black shorts and socks that reached her knees. She scowled and turned to the side, rolling her eyes.

"And I'm Lila-chan!" exclaimed the girl with light emerald hair, waving both her hands eagerly.

"And I'm Hanasora Kiki," finished the rainbow splotched girl, raising two fingers into the peace sign, smiling brightly.

Arisa glanced at each of the girls. Her gaze landed on the leader, Rika. She could feel the dark aura surrounding her. She shoulders her hunched up with her hands balled up into fierce fists.

"Didn't I tell you guys to not talk unless it's absolutely necessary?" Rika snapped at the group, "You're voices can be so annoying…"

Mei scowled at the leader and skated away. "Whatever…" Lila's eyes lost their energetic gleam as she skated away dreadfully and finally Kiki shot a quick glare at the leader before skating off.

Arisa cocked her brow at the golden clad, teenager in front of her, "That's not a cool way to treat your friends." Rika laughed dryly at this. "They're not my friends."

By now, Kuukai had left the crowd, and was skating around, making sure to keep his eye out for Arisa in case she gets herself into trouble…again.

"Our parents are friends and force us to hang around each other just because we're all girls about the same age." Rika continued, rolling her eyes.

Arisa nodded in sympathy, "Well, you all seem nice enough…"

"We're too different to be friends. When we stand next to each other, we don't even want to be there and nobody ever suspects we're friends. Lila's too hyper, Kiki's too 'out there', Mei is too tough and punk, and I'm too…well Mei really, really doesn't like me."

There was an uncomfortable silence then finally Rika said something, "Whatever, just make sure you stay out of my way you got it newbie?" Then with that she skated off.

After a while Arisa began skating around the ice also. Each of the girls were skating in different parts of the ice, with their I-pod ear phones in their ears. She watched in awe as they all spun, jumped and turned to their own beat. After a while, she caught up with Kuukai and announced that she was going to get a drink.

She skated over to the exit of the ice and hopped onto the solid floor. Stumbling forward, she reached into the pockets of her pants and pulled out several coins, inserting them into a nearby vending machine. She selected her favourite-est drink ever, orange Fanta. (A/N: Why Fanta? Cause the Prince of Tennis loves it too~)

Hearing the thump of the plastic bottle, she eagerly fell to her knees and reached into the mouth of the machine. Her hand roamed around the bottom, until it came in contact with the chilled bottle of wonderfully, artificially flavoured drink.

The vending machine was one of the things in the city she actually understood. She had used this machine countless of times at her school after playing sports. A bottle of water from home can only last so long.

She grasped the top of the bottle, squeezing it tightly and turning with all her might. After hearing the satisfying cracking of the lid, she released the lid and smiled brightly.

But right when the top of the bottle came in contact with her lips, her eyes caught sight of something that made her stomach lurch.

Kuukai was standing by Rika with a small smile on his face as he watched Rika present a small performance of twirls, jumps and twists around him. As she skated Arisa felt a sting. But it wasn't a sting of anger, sorrow or any of those emotions. Honestly, she had never really felt anything like this before.

'Well….maybe once.' She thought. 'That one time was when Hiro had creamed me in Monopoly…3 times in a row. Then after that he told her I was…what was the word? Right…jealous. I was so not jealous. Envious is a better word!'

She couldn't help herself. Rika just looked so graceful on the ice. 'Too graceful,' she thought bitterly.

Finally her performance was over. Rika skated over to Kuukai, who had given her a thumbs up which made her smile widen, if it was possible. Arisa threw the bottle in her hand over to her things and went on the ice once more. As she approached them, she caught a bit of their conversation.

"Are you sure you don't want to try figure skating? It'll be so much fun! I can coach you and everything, then eventually, you'll have enough skill and we can perform together!" Rika explained, practically jumping up and down with joy at the thought. But from Arisa's point of view, it looked pretty one sided on Rika's part.

Kuukai smiled somewhat uneasily at her and replied, "I already told you Rika, I'm not all that interested in figure skating."

Rika, whose eyes had lost their gleam after Kuukai's statement, said, "Well, think about it! I have a really good feeling about this time." And with that she smiled brightly, and skated off to join the other girls who had gathered at the edge of the ice.

After Rika left Kuukai's side, Arisa skated up to him, "What was that about?" she asked, giving him a curious look.

He turned to look at her, "Oh that? Rika and I go way back and she just asked me to become her figure skating partner again." Arisa gave him a strange look, "Again?" He sighed and stared ahead, "Skate with me."

As they made their rounds around the ice, Kuukai explained to her how they used to be childhood friends, but stopped hanging out in the middle of elementary school, how they visited only on holidays and how Rika eventually stopped seeing him altogether because she was so busy with school and competitions. And that lack of free time never gave her the chance to make any real friends, besides Kuukai. As he spoke, Arisa couldn't help but glance at Rika every so often and think about how much it would hurt to not have any friends at all.

"She told me that school is getting so tough that if she doesn't keep her grades up, her mom is cancelling all her competitions, practices and anything related to skating." Arisa's eyes widened at this. It was probably equally-if not more horrible than having no friends at all.

From the courner of her eye, she watched Rika attempt a jump and fall. 'It's probably bothering her too…' She pondered.

When their skating time was up, and they returned the skates to Sachiko they walked home. The sun was already setting. The two of them walked home in silence lost in their own thoughts.

'Everything in Tokyo isn't just bigger, it's harder too. I can barely skate compared to people here, the school work is equivalent to alien languages to me and even the people are more complicated. Why do I even care if I'm feminine or not?! That Saaya girl is probably just trying to mess with my head anyway. Tokyo isn't going to be as great and easy as I thought…'

"Hey Arisa-chan; we're back."

The sudden statement brought her mind back into reality; the ever so complicated reality.

They entered the building and walked into the elevator. Arisa had gotten a bit more used to it by now, but she still clung onto Kuukai just in case it pumbled down and crashed into the ground, bringing her to a sad, horrible death. 'Yeah…thanks for thinking positive Arisa-baka.'

He guided her back into the apartment, where they were greeted by the family lazing about the apartment. All the Souma siblings lazily waved at them, and his mom voiced a quick greeting before returning to the book she had in hand. They each returned their greetings with a quick smile, then disappeared into their room to get ready for bed.

As Arisa fell asleep, she thought she heard small voices in her head, but dismissed them. She wanted sleep, and sleep is exactly what she got, along with another great surprise to greet her in the morning.


	5. Oh my goshI'm a chicken

**You read right! Someone****'s a chicken! Horray! Now maybe I'll get a life :D Yeah right xD I see my fic's gaining popularity…I think. Well one of my friends said if I posted this on this site, I'd become…something-something best Shugo Chara OC writer…something. I know, she's crazy. And I know I forget what people tell me a lot xDD …Well that was really pointless :D **

**Enjoy! And please review~**

**Shugo Chara is owned by Peach-Pit, but it'd be pretty cool to lay eggs xD**

_**Warnings (cause they're fun): Egg-laying, sap, sap, sap, and super duper shiny green houses!**_

The Colours of Love: Chapter 4

"Oh my God…I'm a chicken."

Once again, Arisa's dream was filled with strange things. But this time was more random than strange. This night, she dreamt of eggs. All types of eggs; from fried eggs to Easter eggs, it was all there.

As she dreamt, her legs kicked around, underneath the sheets that covered her. The last thing she heard before were three small voices speaking to her. A boy's and girl's voices calling, "Wake up Arisa-chan!!"

Her mind followed the words of the voices, and her eyes fluttered open and her dormant mind awoken. Ceremonially, she kicked her legs a bit more, looking over to the window. It was still somewhat dark out, and the clock read '6:45 AM' Suddenly, one of her feet came in contact with something cold and smooth. But not just one; there was another, but this one was also quite cold.

Shooting a puzzled look at a blank space on the wall, as quietly as she could, threw off the covers of the bed onto the floor.

Laid before her were eggs; two eggs that were about the size of her hand. They each had their own unique designs, but both with a pair of wings on them.

One of them was light blue with a pair wings made of ice on it. When she picked it up, it was freezing and according to what her dad had taught her about eggs, nothing can survive in the egg if it was too cold.

She set it down on her pillow and picked up the next. It was pure white with a picture of a pair of icy blue wings. This egg was almost the opposite of the previous one, colour wise. It was also freezing cold, and whatever was in this egg would meet the same fate as the other one.

"And I thought puberty was weird before."

After setting it next to the other egg, Arisa began to think about where they had come from.

'Maybe one of Kuukai's brother's put it there while I was asleep as a joke…or maybe they were always in the bed and I just never noticed…'

For a while, she thought of multiple scenarios, but all of them seemed to backfire eventually. Her last idea was the least likely, most insane, but…for some reason it made the most sense to her.

Maybe she laid them.

Realizing how true this may be, she frantically tried thinking of reasons how this would be impossible, in a panic.

"Eggs? Why are eggs here? I'm a human, and people don't lay eggs. I know birds lay eggs, and so do fish, lizards, some bugs, insects, and platypuses. But, humans don't! Last I checked I was human…right?"

For several seconds, her mind was totally blank, then she admitted it to herself; "Oh my God…I'm a chicken." She scrambled backward in a panic, eventually falling off the end of the bed, landing with a thump on the floor. She looked over at Kuukai who was still sound-asleep on his bed. "Thank goodness."

All she could think of doing was keeping them until they do something, but she also thought that she should tell Kuukai, and maybe ask if this was normal in Tokyo.

Considering these were the only options she had, she glanced at the eggs on her bed and crawled over to Kuukai.

By now, the sun had begun to rise, and the clock had struck 7:00. Arisa crawled over to Kuukai bed and stood on her knees to face him, face-to-face.

"Psst! Kuukai, wake up," she whispered poking his cheek with her index finger.

Groaning, he shuffled in bed for a bit, but finally eyelids lifted revealing his sleepy green eyes gazing into her own. "Morning Arisa-chan, what time is it?" He grumbled into his pillow.

"Still early, but I have a question to ask you," she said, attempting to keep her voice down. She shifted her weight out of un-easiness and avoided his curious gaze.

Kuukai sat up in bed, leaning on his elbows, "What's the matter Arisa-chan?"

She had sat down on her knees and started entwining her fingers together; a habit she had started when she got nervous. Eventually, he sighed and sat up in bed. "Come Arisa, what is it…" His voiced trailed off, when his gaze fixed itself on the small round objects in her bed.

He jerked forward and jumped over onto her bed picking up the object and staring at them with massive amount of concentration.

The sudden movement had startled her, causing her to flinch. Recovering herself, she joined Kuukai on her bed.

"So, what are they?" She asked stretching her neck forward to get a better look at the eggs. Sighing, Kuukai stared at the eggs for a while longer, but finally replied to her. "You see Arisa, when kids like us have a dream that they really want to fulfill, something out there sends something to help us realize this dream and it helps make us who we want to be. "

All she could really do was nod as he explained about dreams, and eggs and true selves, but when he finished she asked, "So, what should I do."

He smiled, "Luckily for you, I happen to have experience with egg laying people." This caused her to tilt her head to the side cutely and stare at him with curiosity, "Really?"

He shot her a mischievous smile he quietly called out in the direction of his bed, "Daichi! Come here."

Arisa's eyes widened in pure surprise when she say a little person, no less than three inches float up to them. He had bright turquoise hair with a white headband and a star clip on it, a simple yellow t-shirt, a pair of white shorts and yellow and white running shoes on his feet.

"Kuukai…what do you want so early in the morning?" He grumbled, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. Seeing the tiny figure float across the room, Arisa's jaw dropped and she was left utterly speechless.

"Wha-What is he?" She demanded, raising her voice. Kuukai quickly shushed her, covering her mouth with his hand. His gaze moved towards the door to make sure that she had not woken anyone up. Sighing of relief, he removed his hand from her face, fingers brushing against her lips, causing her to extensively blush.

After noticing the blush on her face, he couldn't help but blush himself. Their eyes met, and right as he leaned down…

**BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!!!**

The alarm clock rang. Going back to her senses, she scooted away from him, still with a faint blush on her cheeks. Kuukai exhaled deeply, for he was holding his breath that entire time.

"Well, I guess it's time for you to try your uniform on, and hopefully we got you the right size." He joked. When he looked at her, her face was slightly flushed, which made his own cheeks turn pink at the sight of hers. Dismissing the thought, he took her by the hand and led her to the closet.

As he opened the sliding door of the closet, he reassured, "Don't worry about your eggs, but you should bring them to school and make sure nobody sees them. I'm pretty sure I have something for you to keep them in…" as he finished his sentence he trailed off, digging in the closet.

She sat down his bed, and laid down on her side, curling up in his blankets while inhaling his scent. Suddenly there was a giggle. "Did you hear that? She asked Kuukai, sitting up in his bed. "Not really," he replied, still digging through the contents of the closet.

Arisa shook her head, "No, it's nothing."

'Arisa-chan's a smelling pervert!" One of the voices exclaimed.

"Kuukai," she got up and walked over to him, "I'm hearing voices."

At this statement, he poked his head out from the closet and stared at her strangely, "That would probably be the eggs talking to you," and with that he returned to going through the contents of the closet.

At this, she gave a confused look and sat back down onto his bed, cross-legged and continued to watch him rummage through the stuff, while taking quick glances at the two eggs by her side.

Eventually he stopped searching for whatever he was looking for and opted to just giving her the uniform to change into. Kuukai pulled out a rectangular box with a red ribbon tied around it and handed it to Arisa, which she accepted.

"If it doesn't fit or anything, just let me, or my mom, or somebody know. Then you'll get to skip school today!" With that, he left the room shutting the door behind him.

Deeply sighing, Arisa pulled on one of the ends of the ribbon, releasing the bow and opening the box. She set it down on her bed and pulled out each article of clothing, one by one. First there was a simple white, button-down dress shirt, along with a plain red tie and a black jacket that went over the shirt. Then, her eyes widened once more.

In her hands was a plaid red skirt that barely reached her knees.

Rolling her eyes at this…disgraceful uniform (to her dignity at least) she pulled off the top of her pyjamas and put on her undergarments along with a white undershirt she had packed. Not bothering to put the jacket on, she knocked on her side of the door, signalling for Kuukai to enter.

When Kuukai pushed the door open and looked in, Arisa was glaring at him impatiently, with her arms crossed. Their eyes met, his face flushed and said, "Arisa, you do know you're not wearing pants right?"

She continued to glare, "Yeah I do. What do you expect me to wear?" She suddenly walked up to him, "THAT?" She demanded pointing dramatically at the skirt sitting innocently on the bed.

Cocking an eyebrow at her actions he nodded slowly in response, "Yeah, its part of the uniform and if you don't wear it I'm going to get in trouble." She fell to the ground, crossing her arms and pouted at this information. Kuukai himself, had crossed his arms over his chest and shifted his weight, being somewhat amused at her behaviour.

There was a silence, and Arisa wouldn't give in. Suddenly, Kuukai got a devious idea; very devious indeed.

"I heard you're ticklish," he threatened, smirking. This made her stand up and back away from him, "You wouldn't dare!!" But sadly for her; he did.

Kuukai ran up to her and wiggled his fingers at her sides causing her to go into a non-stop laughing fit, while flailing her legs around successfully kicking him in the stomach.

This procedure continued for a while, but when Arisa was at her limit, she gave in and pulled the skirt up her legs and fastened it with a belt. Along with that, she put on a pair of short shorts, which were miraculously shorter than the shirt, and a pair of knee length white socks.

By then, Kuukai had sat down, leaning against the closet door, panting and watched in amusement as Arisa frantically jumped up and down, trying to get her socks on. Finally she succeeded and demanded him to leave the room.

"Why?" He asked suspiciously, as if she was going to randomly hit him, "I've already seen you with no pants on so what can be worse than that?"

"I need to re-tie my hair." She responded matter-of-factly.

He sent her a strange look, "Is your hair ever down?"

"Can you please turn around?" With this statement, she bent down on her knees giving him the kicked puppy look, which of course, worked. Smiling at her accomplishment, she turned to face the mirror on the desk and pulled the hair ties out of her hair. After quickly brushing her hair, she tied her air back into pigtails, picking out two red hair ties from the pile she had invaded the Souma's desk.

When she finished adjusting her bangs, she tuned to Kuukai who was sitting a foot or two away from her, still facing the wall.

"Finished!" She chirped spinning around to face him. He turned around, only to blush at her appearance once more.

"A-alright," he stuttered. Taking a small pouch from his bed, he threw it over to Arisa who caught it with ease. The pouch was camouflage with a strap to go over her shoulder and a small square compartment just big enough for each of her eggs.

Arisa brought it over to her bed, where she put her two eggs in. The temperatures had not changed, and they were still basically the same.

She frowned at this. If something like Kuukai's 'chara' was going to hatch out of the eggs, she hoped it would be alright. As she approached the door, Kuukai also handed her a leather briefcase with all the necessities she'll need for her classes.

She walked out of the room, following Kuukai into the kitchen where the family was gathered. All of the siblings were sitting at the table eating their breakfast in peace, but when Arisa greeted them, acquiring their attention, all hell broke loose.

"Ohayo," she mumbled at the crowd, still somewhat tired and not a morning person. Each of the siblings had stopped in mid-bite of their breakfast and stared at her. Feeling the awkward-ness of the situation, she stared at them curiously. And this is where all hell broke loose.

"KAWAII!!!" Rento and Unkai cheered, jumping up and hugging her tightly. She watched Kuukai flinch in fear and Suusui smirk, taking a sip of his tea…or whatever he was drinking. Pouting, she finally had enough of this suffocation.

"Get off me!!" She shouted, in her unusually loud voice. Her exclamation made the two brothers release her, and with that she walked to the table and took one of their plates, eating it.

And apparently…it was Rento's plate; covered in pancakes. And once again; there goes hell.

"ARISA! GIVE ME MY PANCAKES!"

She stared at him with a blank look on her face, and then shook her head stubbornly with a mouth full of his pancakes.

He sent glares at her, in which she returned with ease. And when he glared harder, she would glare harder. Then eventually, he would give up and they would recommence their battle.

For a moment, he had left Arisa to continue consuming his pancakes to think of another way to get them back. But sadly in that period of time, Arisa had finished the pancakes, taken her lunch from the counter and dashed through the door following Kuukai to her new school.

A silence had filled with kitchen, with Rento still in his signature thinking pose. "I so knew they left the room okay?" he said to his older brothers.

Unkai couldn't help but laugh at his younger brother's utter stupidity.

-

"Goodness skirts are…flappy," Arisa muttered, glancing back at the red, plaid cloth flapping behind her as she ran.

The two of them sped down the sidewalk, avoiding random pedestrians as they ran. As she caught her breath at the first cross-walk, Kuukai explained to her the arrangement his mom and her parents had organized for them.

"I get the honour of walking you to and from school," he explained putting stress on the word 'honour' which made her stick her tongue out playfully at him. "Then after I escort you to your class, I go to school and get you after school."

They had arrived at the school about 5 minutes before the bell rang. So for the time being, Arisa basically spilt her guts out about how nervous she was. And Kuukai could only reassure her, patting her on her back. The five minutes flew by quickly, and the bell rang, signalling the start of classes.

Arisa expected him to walk ahead of her, guiding her, but instead she was forced in front of him and had to remember her own way around.

She entered through the main entrance along with a swarm of other kids, all wearing generally the same uniform and chattering away with friends. In her opinion, she was rather invisible, but some people who had actually noticed her stopped and whispered, "New girl," as she walked past. This made her feel uncomfortable and self conscious with herself.

Once she made it through the front door, it was less crammed, but was buzzing with kids of all ages rushing to get to their classes. She nervously glanced behind her, searching for Kuukai. But sadly, he was no where to be seen. Sighing in disappointment, she hurried up the main stairs and down the hall, sliding open the door to Star Class Six.

From the afar, Kuukai smiled at her, feeling somewhat proud with himself.

-

The class was quiet, and when she barged in, the class had exploded with laughter. The teacher, she had already met the day before. He still looked the same, but was currently underneath a gigantic pile of books and papers.

"Ah, Hoshiwa-san, so glad you can join us today." He greeted, smiling from under the pile, "Why don't you introduce yourself, while I get myself organized?"

Her gaze turned to the class who was staring at her judgingly. Gulping nervously, she gave the best introduction she could think of on the spot.

"I'm Hoshiwa Arisa! I moved here from the Hoshiko prefecture and I will be studying here for the year. I dislike snobs and obnoxious people, so if you aren't one we'll probably get along. I like sports, candy, animals and collecting hats. Also, I'm a tomboy and I think the school really needs to re-think their female uniforms!" She finished this with a smile and a peace sign that made most of the boys exclaim and shout.

Standing at the front of the classroom, she had a pretty good view of everybody in the class. One person she recognized was sitting at the side of the class, next to all her 'friends.' Saaya Yamabuki.

Saaya had acknowledged Arisa, but mostly looked away from her, ignoring her for the most part.

Arisa had also noticed that a blonde haired boy with strangely gentle red eyes was staring at her intently, but was taken out of his stare when the pink haired girl next to him pulled on his sleeve, consulting him about something. He looked over at a petit, curly blonde haired girl sitting behind him.

Then sighing in relief, she looked back at the teacher. "Sensei, where do I sit?"

Nikaidou who was in the middle of sorting out some papers said, "Right there would be fine," after looking up from his work and pointing out a seat in the middle of a crowd of boys, who had suddenly looked up at her from their apparent 'plotting'.

She made her way down the aisle of desks, receiving curious glances from her classmates. Finally, she reached her desk and sat down. Class flew by pretty quickly, and Arisa was even starting to get used to the curriculum at the school. She sometimes got confused, but figured it out eventually…sort of. Sadly it was fairly hard to concentrate judging how she was sitting in the midst of a bunch of males, AKA the non-stop-chatter-boxes.

Eventually, she snapped and threw an eraser at the most leader-like male, acquiring his attention. "Excuse me? But can you keep it down?" She whispered.

He looked shocked, Arisa assumed he had never expected her to stand up for herself. He replied, "Why don't you make me?" and recommenced chatting to his friends in hushed voices.

His remark made her feel somewhat offended; she whispered to him again, "Hey, do you know how to sleep with your eyes open?" He shook his head nervously. "Oh," she paused then smiled menacingly at him, "What a shame," and went back to paying attention to the lesson. Each of the boys had a look on their faced which resembled something between shocked and the 'Oh shit I'm going to crap myself' look, and for the rest of the period, none of them said a word.

Lunch finally, and Arisa ran to her locker to retrieve the package she had picked up this morning as she was ignoring Rento.

When she returned to the classroom, there was a group of girls crowding around someone. She mainly ignored it, but when she heard the person's voice she whipped around and pointed an accusing finger at him, "TRAITOR!"

His attention was caught by a fuming Arisa standing across the room from him. "How could you just ditch me like that?! I could've got hit by a bus!" She yelled at him.

"Arisa, you were inside," he said, trying to calm down the agitated girl in front of him.

"Well a bus could've crashed through the wall and hit me!!" she cried.

He sighed, "Arisa would a bus really go through all the trouble of crashing through a wall to hit you?"

Arisa rolled her eyes, "Not the bus; the bus DRIVER."

They fought for a little while longer, but Arisa had finally given up, and they sat down at her desk, discussing random topics as they ate. After a bit, Kuukai explained about the student counsel that he used to be part of before he graduated.

"Basically, we take care of the needs of the students, whether they need consulting or a tutor or something," he explained. Arisa nodded, taking another bite out of her lunch. "And we sort of have this 'Chairs System.'" To this, Arisa cocked an eye brow at him.

"Chairs System? Like, the chairs you sit on…?"

He chuckled at her interpretation and shook his head, "We base it off playing cards. We have a king, queen, jack, ace and joker. Usually we just sit around doing paper work, but luckily the jack and joker aren't required to do that kind of stuff." He glanced over to Arisa, who was avidly focussing on the chopsticks in her mouth. Suddenly she pulled them out, "But what does that have to do with chairs?"

Kuukai laughed out loud at how absolutely oblivious this girl was, "Nevermind, just pretend I never said anything."

Just then, three other classmates pulled their chairs up to the table where Arisa and Kuukai were seated and set their lunches down. Kuukai smiled brightly at the arrival, and after swallowing he introduced them to her.

But before Kuukai could say a word, Arisa put on a curious face and pointed a finger at the blonde haired boy, "You're pretty," she declared. There was an awkward silence in the group, and then Arisa shrugged, "I'm serious, prettiest dude ever." The petit blonde haired girl smirked in an amused manner, while the pinkette sent a glare at her new classmate.

"Arisa-san, that's Hotori Tadase. He's head of the student counsel A.K.A the king, and my best friend," Kuukai laughed. Tadase gave a friendly wave and smiled, trying his best to ignore Arisa's statement. Arisa waved back with a mouth full of rice, and pointed at the pink haired girl sitting next to him looking uneasy as if trying to keep her cool.

"Woo zat?" She mumbled through the food in her mouth. This was one of the many un-feminine traits her mom hated.

"That's Hinamori Amu-san, the joker. She transferred here last year." She muttered a greeting then crossed her arms, acting like she was too cool to talk to them.

"You're funny," Arisa stated, laughing at Amu's attitude, while pointing an accusing finger at her. Amu looked around nervously, and just chose to continue taking small bites of her lunch, pouting. This caused the petit blond girl next to her roll her eyes, yet it looked like she was also stifling a laugh at the same time.

"And that would be Mashiro Rima-san, the second queen." Kuukai remarked, waving his hand at the girl. While Arisa waved at her, Rima muttered, "Tch, boring," under her breath, then scooted closer to Amu. "Ouch, that hurt." Arisa murmured in response.

"And I am Kuukai, the awesomest ex-jack this school will ever have!" Kuukai exclaimed punching a fist into the air.

Being utterly oblivious to his exclamation, she asked, "So where are all the others?"

"Don't worry Hoshiwa-san, you'll meet them after school at the Royal Garden." Tadase explained.

"The Royal what-what?" She asked, sending a confused look at him.

"Aah, I see Souma-kun still hasn't explained about us," he paused, "That's alright. You can come after school and we'll explain everything there." Then before Arisa could say anything, the bell rang and all the students returned to their seats and Kuukai made his leave to who knows where.

The rest of the class was quite tiresome for Arisa, math equations always seemed to be thrown towards her. And hating math and doing it at the same time could get quite tiresome. So finally, when the torturous lesson was over, along with the school day, she collapsed into her chair, adoring the relaxation.

But sadly her near-sleep-mode was interrupted by at the familiar sound of papers landing onto her desk.

Homework, she groaned in her mind.

So sitting up (and facing her doomed faith) she picked up the papers stapled together, and glanced at the questions.

This time she verbally groaned, "More math?" She looked around the room, taking notice that everybody else's work load was considerably smaller than hers.

"What a gyp!!" She exclaimed to herself, but this caught the attention of the flustering sensei that finished handing out the papers, "Gomen ne Hoshiwa-san, but I just think you should get more practice on the work since you're new to it. One of Seiyu's students that have moved is coming back for about as long as you are soon, he's pretty smart, so I was considering him as a potential tutor for you."

"He goes to the middle school where Kuukai?" She asked, naturally curious.

Nikaidou glanced around somewhat nervously, "Well you see Hoshiwa-san…he's in the 5th grade."

The statement made her jaw drop open. A 5th grader tutoring me? She thought. Doing her best to control the outburst rising up her throat, she quickly took the papers, which she threw into her bag, she looked at her teacher, "Thanks for the offer sensei, but I think I'll be fine on my own." With that, she rushed past him and out the room where she caught sight of Kuukai who was leaning against the wall, apparently awaiting her arrival.

"So how was class?" He asked, breaking the silence between them.

She shrugged, "Class-ish."

Instead of following the path that they took to school, Kuukai took her by the arm and pulled her behind the school, next to where the forest was.

"Where are we going?!" Arisa demanded, trying to keep up with him, stumbling often.

"I'm taking you to the 'Royal-what-what"," he joked, making her stagger slightly behind, but eventually catch up with him. He noticed that Arisa had quickly lost interest of visiting the Royal Garden and pondered on a way to get her to speed up.

After walking ideally (and a little too innocently to Arisa), Kuukai snatched the hat off her head and dashed ahead, laughing. Arisa let loose a shriek and ran after him at full speed.

He led her around the trees, over bushes and fallen branches until they reached the desired destination. Kuukai stopped to catch his breath, but was suddenly tackled from behind.

"I caught you! Now hand over my hat!" Arisa shouted, sitting over his stomach. Being his own stubborn self, he stuck his tongue out at her, agitating her more than ever.

The duo wrestled relentlessly, until Arisa succeeded, pinning Kuukai to the ground, with his head facing downwards, and putting into one of the many wrestling holds that Hiro had taught her. "Now hand over the hat!"

Groaning in pain, he vigorously shook his head. She growled, and was about to voice another threat to the boy under her, when she heard other voices.

"Ne, erotic pair aren't they?" She heard a girl say, her voice just seemed to feel older than hers.

"Shinyu, shut up," the voice of another girl.

"Souma-kun, are you alright?" This voice, Arisa recognized.

"Tadase-san!" Arisa cried, glancing upwards, past her hat which she finally retrieved from the groaning boy under her.

Standing above her was a crowd of seven people, but only six of them were wearing the Seiyo uniform. Arisa recognized Tadase, Rima, and Amu from this morning. Behind them, was a majestic glass green house that shone in the sunlight, she guessed that was the Royal Garden.

"Holy shit…"


	6. Faster, Quicker, Speeding CHARA CHANGE!

**Hi! YAY! Chara-changing! That's always fun! Cause somebody usually get hurt in the process! ****I don't really remember, but I remember Arisa trips, falls, crashes and collapses a lot…:D I hope no one minds the random lengths of my chapters. Sometimes there's just not enough to write xD But I've got a crap load of ideas, so look forward to it :D**

**Enjoy and review homesicles!**

**Shugo Chara is owned by Peach-Pit and not me…since I'm not Peach-Pit. But my main character's cooler D**

_**Warning for: Chara-changing, tucking fypos, and side character sappy love life (but we love you anyway Tsu-chan!) oh yeah, and also massive homework packs :D**_

The Colours of Love: Chapter 5

Faster, quicker, speeding, CHARA CHANGE!

The youngest of the Guardians had orange-brown pigtails on either side of her head, secured with bright red bows. She happily introduced herself as Yuiki Yaya and her chara Pepe-chan, the Ace chair of the Guardians, before clinging onto Kuukai begging him to play with her.

Next to Yaya was a…boy? He had really pretty and straight hair. But was wearing the male's uniform. "Fujisaki Nagihiko pleased to meet you Hoshiwa-san, of Star Class."

Most people think it was weird when people knew random information about you, your school and stuff like that. Well…yeah, Arisa was one of those people. She shook his hand, while sending a weird look towards him. Amu and Rima simply waved, and Arisa sent her gaze over to the other two girls.

"That's Hayai Shinyu," Kuukai said, pointing over to the girl with long, fiery red hair, and a dark grey uniform.

"Kuukai-san, I think I can introduce myself, thanks," she shot at him, "I'm Hayai Shinyu, I go to the high school around here and I'm the, ex Ace! If you have any concerns, don't hesitate to ask me. And this is my chara, Hana-chan," Shinyu had long and straight red hair that reached her mid-back and was tied in a low, messy pony-tail. She also had really cool purple eyes and wore light purple eye-shadow. It went nicely with her eyes, Arisa thought.

The girl next to Shinyu was quiet for most of the time, but looked at Arisa with curiosity. They were both startled when Shinyu threw an arm around her. "And this is my buddy, Aoisora Tsukiga-chan!"

Arisa laughed at the annoyed expression that was plastered on the young girl's face. She had even longer dark green hair that reached her waist, and swished in the wind. Her eyes were bright orange, but empty of emotion.

"Come one Tsu-chi…you've been so depressed since he left. You really need to cheer up!" Shinyu whined poking at Tsukiga's face. Tsukiga replied to this statement with a scowl and shrugged the older girl off. "Nice to meet you," she muttered, then walked away.

Arisa looked at the girl's retrieving figure, then back at the Guardians. Tadase shook his head, "Don't worry about it…she'll be okay."

Luckily Arisa wasn't one to listen to people and followed her towards the forest.

Arisa followed the trail of broken twigs and trampled leaves into a small clearing where Tsukiga sat on the grass with her legs crossed. She was facing the other side of the clearing so Arisa couldn't read the expression on her face.

"Ne…Aoisora-san?" Arisa said, nervously inching closer to her. There was no reply so Arisa kept walking towards her. When Arisa was right next to her, Tsukiga's knees were brought up to her face, with her evergreen coloured hair covering most of her face.

Arisa sat down across from her and crossed her legs. "Aoisora-san…are you alright?" The young brunette's presence was ignored for a while, until the girl opposite to her looked up.

"Why are you still here? Everybody else leaves me so why not you?" She snapped at her. Arisa's brown eyes widened and responded quietly, "I have no idea what happened before, but I thought it'd be nice of me to follow you. So, if you don't want me around I'll just get out the way I came."

Just as she got up to leave a sigh escaped Tsukiga's lips, "Wait," she said, glancing upwards. Arisa turned and sat back down facing her.

"So Aoisora-san," she began, "Tell me what bothered you about Hayai-san's words."

At first, Tsukiga was silent, mentally searching for the right way to word her thoughts. Finally she just decided to say whatever she wanted, "Two years ago, I transferred to this school and joined the Guardians because of my charas. The former Jack before Nagihiko-san…interested me."

She lowered her legs and sat on her knees, crossing her arms and blushing slightly. "But then we found out he was actually a spy from Easter, A.K.A the bad guys. Luckily for us, in the end he chose our side and we won."

"Well that's good isn't it, but what did she mean by he 'left'?" Arisa asked, innocently.

"Yup, that's exactly what he did," she said, quietly. "I confessed to that kid the day before he left. I guess he was a little freaked when I did, so he never gave me an answer. So the next day, I didn't bother going to the airport to see him off and I heard from Yaya-chan he confessed to Hinamori Amu," the green haired girl ended with a scowl.

Arisa's eyes widened, "And, how long ago was that?"

Tsukiga sighed once more, "Almost a year now…"

The younger brunette stared at the girl sympathetically and scooted over next to her. Tsukiga stared at her curiously and suddenly let loose a yelp when the young girl wrapped her arms around her shoulders, almost knocking her over with the impact.

Tsukiga stayed frozen in her position for a moment, but then slowly embraced the other girl.

"You better not be taking pity on me," Tsukiga grumbled into Arisa's shoulder.

"Don't worry, I'm not." Arisa replied.

Empathy would be a better word anyway.

The two girls returned to the Royal Garden and entered it watching everyone inside. Some (Tadase, Nagihiko and Amu) were working, some (Shinyu and Yaya) were slacking off, Rima was her usual self sipping her tea and Kuukai was standing by a small fountain, dribbling a soccer ball boredly.

"Aaaaand they're back!" Shinyu cried out happily, running up to the two girls.

"Welcome back," Nagihiko greeted.

Arisa stared around the Royal Garden in awe. According to Hiro, and many other people, she got distracted, and, or fascinated very, very easily. The Royal Garden was basically, a large glass green house, with many flowers and plants growing around. There was also a small fountain surrounded by bright and colourful flowers. The walkway that you go in lead to a gazebo where the Guardians held daily meetings, and according to Yaya, ate really good snacks.

"Tsu-chaaan, now that you're back from explaining your love life to Arisa-san, can you please do my work for me?" Shinyu begged.

Tsukiga sighed, probably of annoyance, "Shinyu, seriously, you're two years older than I am."

"But Tsukiga-chaaaan!" She continued.

Arisa laughed, "Ne, Aoisora-san, since Haya-san is already offering her work, how about you do my homework as well?"

By now, Tsukiga practically had the funny anger mark her favourite anime characters had when they get annoyed.

The three girls laughed with each other happily, "Ne, Hoshiwa-san?" Shinyu asked, after settling from her laughing fit.

"What is it Hayai-san?"

"Can we please agree to cut all these useless formalities with each other?" She asked, laughing.

Tsukiga smiled, "I agree, formalities suck!"

Arisa also agreed and from that point on, they were pretty much known as F.A.N's; Freakin, awesome, nobodies.

Kuukai looked up from his soccer ball to the commotion of laughter. His bright green eyes instantly laid on the brunette, and smiled himself.

His reaction caused Nagihiko to walk over to him, with a very unwilling Tadase in tow.

"Sou-ma-kun," Nagihiko greeted, clearing stating each syllable. Kuukai sent a questioning look towards the male Fugisaki boy and cocked an eyebrow at him.

Fujisaki-kun, what is it?" He asked.

"We were just wondering why you were smiling like that," He asked with a sly grim plastered on his face.

"…We were?" Tadase asked from behind, unsurely.

Kuukai stared a the pair strangely, then finally responded, "It's funny isn't it?" and walked over to the girls, leaving the plotting Nagihiko, and somewhat clueless Tadase.

Amu and Rima had joined the girls and were in a heated conversation about Arisa's eggs and soon to be charas.

"Hoshiwa-san-"

"You know what?! EVERYBODY has to cut the formalities!" Arisa interrupted, being fed up with being so formal. Formal meant controlling yourself, and she hated that. For Arisa it was full force, no matter what.

Rima had stated that she shouldn't even be with the Guardians since her eggs hadn't hatched yet, but luckily Shinyu and Tsukiga backed her up (but mostly Shinyu; Tsukiga mainly absent-mindedly shot glares at the pinkette standing across from her.)

Along with Kuukai, Tadase and Nagihiko had joined them.

"Hoshiwa-san," Tadase began, but he never really got to finish his sentence after being, once again, interrupted by the somewhat hyper Arisa.

"Tadase-chaaaaaan?" She whined cutely clinging to his arm. The startled Hotori looked at her and sent a look of confusion, "What is it Hoshiwa-san?"

"I'm bored…" She stated releasing him from her death grip.

Suddenly random anime light bulbs appeared over everyone's heads, except Arisa.

"Amu-chi; why don't you show Arisa-chan your transformation and how you purify X-eggs?" Yaya chirped, proud of her idea.

Tsukiga sent Shinyu a look, and Shinyu returned it with a shrug. All the Guardians agreed to this and swiftly ditched their paper work and rushed out of the Royal Garden, on the hunt for an X-egg or two.

-

The group chatted ideally as they made their rounds around the school grounds for a while until they stopped at the soccer field. They all stood, staring at a small, round and…squishing looking object, with a large, white X on it.

Arisa looked at it weirdly, "What the hell is that thing?!"

"That, Arisa-chan, is an X-egg. It's what happens when somebody doesn't believe in themselves and start thinking that they can't do something," Nagihiko explained in a whisper, making sure not to scare off the X-egg.

"Also, if they don't get purified, the person stops believing in their dreams all together and become boring," Rima added plainly.

Arisa's eyes widened, maybe this is why her parents kept telling her to follow her dreams…that and to stop hiding dirty laundry in the yard so she would avoid doing laundry.

The group stood in silence, then Kuukai finally announced, "Now I'm going to show you how to chase X-eggs. After you get some practice, it actually becomes quite fun!"

"O…kay?" She said, suddenly quite unsure of what she got into.

All of the sudden, he shouted, "Chara-change!" which shocked Arisa. Nagihiko waved at the duo and said, "Chase the egg around for a bit, then chase it back here."

Kuukai nodded as a yellow star clip appeared in his hair and a blue and yellow skateboard emerged under his feet. Arisa stared in awe how things were suddenly appearing out of thin air, but was literally pulled out of her trance when Kuukai grabbed her hand and sped ahead.

At first, Arisa thought she was going to die, or at least get brutally injured, but after a while, she was getting used to it and was laughing like crazy. She called out directions and if they needed to go faster or not. The only bad and really uncomfortable side was that the skateboard wasn't all that big, so she was basically pressed against Kuukai's back.

After making several rounds around the field and almost crashing into bushes and walls, they returned to the meeting point, cornering the X-egg.

"Amu, go!" Nagihiko called.

The Joker nodded and called to one of her 3 charas. The pink one, how did I guess?

"This is Ran, Miki and Suu, my charas," Amu announced proudly. Arisa watched her curiously, mentally taking notes. Sadly for her, she took notes for everything that isn't school related.

"Atashi no kokoro, UNLOCK!" Amu cried. Suddenly a bright light engulfed her and stayed for a few minutes, when finally Amu emerged from the bright pink light in a light pink cheerleading outfit.

Amu stared at the X-egg with determination shining in her eyes. The X-egg seemed to be quivering in fear and began to speed away.

"Heart Speeders!" Amu cried, as matching pink roller skates appeared on her feet. Amu sped directly towards.

"What do you think?" Kuukai asked, nudging Arisa in the ribs. At first, the young brunette was silent, then she replied, "It's…pink; very, very pink." This caused Tsukiga and Shinyu to snicker, hearing her response.

Even after five minutes of chasing, Amu still couldn't catch up with the X-egg. And Arisa was getting quite fed up.

"Does she normally take this long to catch one and purify it?" Arisa asked, crossing her arms.

Kuukai thought for a moment, "I think this one is a lot faster than most."

Faster.

Arisa''s eyes suddenly widened, She vividly remembers her obsession with being faster than everyone else, so whenever said something about being faster, something inside her clicked. But this time, she heard a voice.

If you want to go, then go right ahead.

The oblivious girl whipped her head around then turned to look at the small bag Kuukai had given her. She hurriedly pulled the blue egg out and stared at it, oblivious to the stares she received from the Guardians.

"Arisa-chan, daijobou?" Shinyu asked, suddenly concerned.

Just then, the blue, crystal egg floated up from her palms and cracked open through the middle and out bust a small, 3 inched person. Well, that's what she thought it looked like.

It was a boy with blue hair, the same shade as the egg, a striped blue, with white goggles tightly fastened to his head and white scarf and blue scarf wrapped around his neck. Along with that he sported a simple white t-shirt and baggy white jeans, and black hockey skates on his feet.

Arisa stared at him in shock, "Holy—"

"If you want to go fast, then go! Faster! Quicker! Speeding! Chara-change!" He shouted.

At that moment, goggles similar to his appeared in her hair along with blue hockey skates. Did I mention she was floating?

"What—what's happening??" She demanded, but before anyone could respond something in her mind clicked and commanded her feet to go. So that's what she did.

That day, Arisa Hoshiwa went faster than she had ever dreamed of.

Eventually, she had gotten the hang of it and was 'air-skating' like mad. Sometimes she would turn around to watch the trail of clear, blue sparks appear, tracing her trail. Arisa was absolutely exhilarated by the sudden adrenaline rush and sped forward after the X-egg with all her might; backwards.

Just as she passed Amu, who had already began to persperate, Arisa turned forward once more and sped ahead. Right when the X-egg was in her reach, she bounded forward, reaching out at the egg, successfully catching it in her hands.

Arisa smiled cheerfully as the poor X-egg squirmed and wiggled around in her hands. She stared at it with awe, and while in her trance her mind suddenly convinced her to say, "All bad things in your mind…FREEZE!"

Just as she said those words, the X on the egg cracked and the eggs turned white and returned to its original form. Arisa watched in awe as it floated back into the sky and disappeared in the distance. Her trance was suddenly disrupted by the group of Guardians rushing to her side.

"Wow Arisa-chan! That was so cool! You could purify eggs while only in chara-change!" Yaya cheered. Many of the Guardians agreed to this and nodded in approval. Arisa's cheeks flushed to a light hue of pink and her fingers crossed themselves together, out of shyness.

"Well it's not like I planned to show Amu-chan up like that," she replied sheepishly, in shock. Amu was still in her transformation when she approached the group. She quickly changed back, showing her outer personality again.

"Amu-chan, I'm sorry. I really didn't mean to get so…cocky out there." Arisa apologized, bowing to her.

The pink-haired girl's eyes widened with surprise, not expecting an apology, of all things from the girl.

"I-it's alright." She responded.

"It was all…" Arisa paused and turned to the little person floating carelessly by her head, "**you're fault!**"

"Right, sorry about that, but that's how you want to be; cocky and confident when you play, so that's what I am," he replied lazily, from his lying position in the air. "By the way, the name's Koorei; don't wear it out."

Arisa's mind unexpectedly came to a pause. One of the eggs that she laid this morning had hatched…

Concerned, the Guardians were startled when Arisa suddenly broke into a laughing fit, "Wow, now that I can actually see it, I am sometimes too lazy for my own good!"

Koorei looked up at her and a small smile broke onto his face, "Well Arisa-chan, I'm here to stay so you better get used to it!"

She smiled back, "Nice to meet you Koorei."

The Guardians watched the scene from behind, happy for her. Amu sighed, 'Maybe she's more powerful than me after all."

By the time their little adventure finished, they were left with a fairly hyper Arisa, loads of unfinished paperwork and some stale cookies they had left out after they ditched the Royal Garden.

In her hyper state, Arisa cried out, "YOU LEFT THE COOKIES OUT?? ARE YOU PEOPLE INSANE? WHEN IT COMES TO COOKIES—" luckily before she could continue, she crashed.

Yes; she literally crashed. As in, fall to the ground, topple some chairs over, break a flower pot and pass out; crash. Kuukai laughed silently and pulled her onto his back, carrying her bag in his hand and bid his farewells to the Guardians. Luckily, Daichi and Koorei got along quite well and raced each other as Kuukai carried Arisa.

Once they entered the house, after removing his shoes, when he passed the kitchen he received whistles from his brothers who were suspiciously huddled at the table. Kuukai simply dismissed the thought and continued up the stairs into their room.

Shutting the door behind him, he walked the still slumbering girl to her bed and set her down.

After he stretched his shoulders from the long walk home he bent back down to look at Arisa, deepest sleeper ever, he thought.

Kuukai suddenly remembered that on their way to school, Arisa had told him that she never sleeps with socks on, so that's what he thought to do first. His fingers gingerly tugged at her now, stained until they flipped off her feet. He discarded these in the courner of dirty laundry.

He pulled the sheets behind her down and moved her, until she was nestled nicely under the covers. He pulled the soccer printed sheets over her shoulders and placed Lappy-chan under along with her.

Standing up, he looked over at his work. He smiled. Suddenly caught in a trance, his hand moved towards Arisa and brushed the bangs that covered her eyes.

Suddenly, Kuukai's mind couldn't help but wander and wonder what she looked like with her hair down. His hand drifted to one of her pigtails that lay lifelessly on her shoulders. He hazily fiddled with it, his fingers nearing the hair tie. Then right as he was about to pull it off, he came back to his senses and shot his hand away from her.

What am I doing? If she doesn't want me to see what she looks like with her hair down, I won't.

After grumbling several incoherent words to himself, he changed, turned off the lights and retreated to his bed flushed.

As he drifted off into a calming rest, Arisa's eyes slowly opened.

I knew you wouldn't do it, and with that, she too fell asleep.

Too bad for her the gigantic math package she had for homework was still incomplete. I wonder what Nikaidou sensei's going to think about that…


	7. Mad at my Would Be Me

**You know the randomest thing appeared on my fanfiction profile yesterday. According to the site, I'm in Germany xD But Germans are cool! –Prince of Tennis moment- And Tezu-buchou went to Germany! So I bet he yells at his team in German sometimes…-snicker- **

**Well enjoy the chapter! It's…also quite long and took a freak long time to write xD **

**I do not own Shugo Chara in any way. If I did…-cackle manically- Amu would be hit by a bus! xD**

**Warning for: incomplete homework, letters and…EGAD! WERDDDDDSS!! XD**

The Colours of Love: Chapter 6

Mad at my Would-Be-Me

Arisa's morning followed as listed; wake up, get changed, steal someone's breakfast, get in a fight, walk to school and arrive. But this morning would be somewhat different, because normally, she finishes her homework.

Upon arriving at school, stopping in mid-step, Arisa hurriedly opened her bag only to find the math package that she was assigned the day before; incomplete.

"Oh no…"

She turned to Kuukai who had stopped along with her, wearing his middle school uniform, but had yet to tie the green neck tie hanging carelessly on his shoulders.

"What happened, Arisa-chan?" He asked, a worried look appearing on his tanned face.

Her face twisted into an expression of worry, confusion and fear. She's procrastinated before, but she always finished her work…even if it was six in the morning.

She sat, almost lifelessly on the sidewalk, staring at her paper. Kuukai visibly flinched when she groaned loudly, covering her face with the thick pamphlet of paper. After watching her sudden out burst he knelt down and tried to look at her face, but failed.

"Arisa-chan…?"

Suddenly the young girl stood up and glared angrily at a space of air in front of her. Koorei too looked at her with worry, "Hey Ari-kun, seriously, what's wrong?"

Arisa growled and shoved the papers in Koorei's face, "Thanks to yesterday, I didn't get a chance to finish my homework!!"

The two males stared, dumbfounded at the fuming girl. Then Kuukai responded, "Well Nikaidou-sensei was never very serious about homework, so you'll be fine."

She glared angrily at him, "Well he cares about **my** homework so much, that now that I didn't complete my homework, I'm going to be tutored by a 4th grader!!"

Koorei sighed, admitting his defeat, "Whatever Ari-kun, whatever happens, happens and what doesn't, doesn't. So can we go now?"

So grumbling some incoherent words to herself, they continued on.

When they arrived at Seiyu Academy's grounds, a deep sigh escaped the girl's lips as she waved Kuukai off when he ran in the direction of his school with Daichi.

Arisa glanced around the school grounds, crowded as ever. So she made her way inside to her classroom.

Just as she was making her way up the stairs, there was a sudden commotion coming from the direction of the 4th grade Moon Class. Defiantly not wanting to go to class, she slid down the railing and ran towards the yelling.

After she turned the courner leading to the Moon Class sector, Arisa crashed directly into a large crowd of people surrounding something. When she successfully shoved through the crowd of eager students, her eyes shot open as she stared at her friend and an unknown boy pinned to the wall by her.

"Holy shit…Tsukiga-chan??" she called out.

The boy had a shocked expression on his face. Behind his glasses were clear blue eyes that stared at the older girl in fear. His face was pale…or he was just scared out of his mind.

Now Tsukiga; she had the expression of a demon on her face and was fuming frantically, holding the boy by the collar of his uniform.

From the people surrounding, the duo received whispers, "Isn't that Aoisora-senpai of the Guardians?" And, "What's she doing with Sanjou-san?"

Arisa was wondering these questions herself and more, suddenly she couldn't help it anymore. She shoved past the remaining people in her way and bounded forward, grabbing onto Tsukiga.

"What the hell are you doing?" Arisa demanded, grabbing a hold on the girl's arms, releasing the boy in her grip, who stumbled to retain his balance.

"A-Aoisora-senpai…"

After sending a glare at the boy, she stomped off with Arisa trailing behind her.

"Seriously Tsukiga-chan, what were you doing to that kid?" Arisa demanded, trying to keep up with her fast pace. She abruptly came to a halt, her long hair swishing as she did and turned to face Arisa, with tears at the edge of her eyes, "That was Kairi-kun…"

The brunette's eyes widened, but before she could respond, Tsukiga had sprinted past her to her class.

Still in a state of shock, Arisa glanced backwards at the place she had just come from and saw Kairi sitting against the wall with his head between his legs. Letting out an audible sigh, she continued to class.

When she pushed the door open, the class had already begun and everyone had their nose in a book (or at least made it look like it) and were concentrating on their studies (See other note thing).

Arisa was about to take her seat when Nikaidou signalled her to leave the room with him. She gulped nervously; this was always a sign of trouble.

Fidgeting with her fingers, she stood nervously as he shut the door behind him.

Finally after a tense silence he began, "Well Arisa-chan this is about your tutor…" For a moment, she stopped breathing and her eyes widened.

For once, his expression was stuck in a serious one and he actually tried avoiding her eyes. Clearly he was just as uncomfortable as she was, but she didn't care; she was too busy making sure she doesn't have a fit.

By now, Koorei who was resting in her camouflage pouch peeked out to see that was going on. A room can never be this silent when Arisa was around. When he saw her standing by the teacher, he panicked and flew out. When Arisa saw him from the corner of her eye, she instinctively shot her hand towards him, successfully holding him in her grasp behind her back.

"W-what did you need Nikaidou-sensei?" She asked as innocently as possible. She watched his eyes widen slightly, before looking through her innocent brown eyes and continuing his sentence, "Well your tutor arrived today, so since I heard you've joined the Guardians so you're going to meet him after school today at the Royal Garden."

Arisa noticed his eyes couldn't stop trying to look behind her. Just as she was about to step back into the classroom, Nikaidou randomly asked her, "Hoshiwa-san, are you aware of the real purpose of the Guardians?"

She froze, and suddenly Koorei escaped her grasp and flew up to Nikaidou's face and shook an angry fist at him, "And so what if she does?! Huh? What are you going to do 'bout that??"

Arisa bit her lip. According to Kuukai people without Shugo Chara wouldn't be able to see them, but instead of continuing to look at her, his eyes were fixed on a pair of icy blue ones in front of him.

The man confirmed his eyesight when he poked Koorei on his head, causing him to blow, being as impatient and short tempered as he was; just like a boy.

"That's it buster!! Arisa; chara-change!" He shouted, glaring daggers at the man.

"Wait—no, Koorei!!" Arisa cried, but she was cut off when, a pair of white goggles appeared on her forehead once more, along with blue fingerless gloves on her hands. She pulled the yellow tinted goggles over her eyes and when she looked at Nikaidou, she glared icily at him.

"Look! I don't need a tutor! I'll be perfectly fine on my own, so just stay out of this!" She screamed. Her voice carried though the halls and caused several classroom doors to slide open and handfuls of curious students to pour out, heading towards the commotion.

She sent a glare at the approaching crowd and dashed out of the scene, jumping the flight of stairs effortlessly and just ran.

As she ran, she felt her skirt flap behind her and her pigtails swish against her neck. Finally, she arrived at her destination, well more like middle of no where. By now the goggles and gloves and disappeared and she was left, out of breath.

But wherever she was, she thought it was pretty nice. Eyeing the colourful jungle gym to her left, she walked over to it, keeping silent from her chara. Immediately, she ran for the violet monkey bars, jumping upwards and hanging from the painted metal rods, a small smile creeping onto her face.

"Nice going with Nikaidou! You really showed him!!" Koorei cheered loudly, regaining Arisa's attention.

At first, she was silent. She had changed positions so that she was now hanging upside-down by her legs. Then, she released the bars and landed on her feet, "You know…I know sometimes it's great having you around, but has it ever occurred to you that I might want to do well and not be a total screw up in school?!"

Koorei's excited expression dropped and he muttered a quick apology before floating back into his egg glumly.

Arisa sighed; she normally hated yelling at people, but boys just always seemed to have something that made her go kind of crazy. She made her way over to a nearby tree and swung from a branch until she landed on the top. Resting comfortably against the tree trunk, she fiddled with some of the lush green leaves before drifting off to sleep.

After swinging from the branch after she woke up, she began to walk back to the school, with Koorei still in his egg. But when she arrived, she noticed that students had already begun to exit the building.

"Shit…I was away for that long," and she ran for her classroom. If she screws this up, she'll be screwed for the rest of her time here. So she ran as fast as she could into the building, to find Nikaidou.

As she sped up the stairs, she ran past many people she recognized; Saaya, some of the girls from her class, the boy who always chews his pencils to death…and so forth. But someone she never expected to run into was Kuukai.

"Arisa!" He exclaimed grabbing onto her arm, "What's the rush?"

"K-Kuukai?! Eh…hi?" She stammered, praying that he doesn't know what happened.

She lashed out at the teacher.

She ditched school

She comes back when school is finished

She still didn't finish her homework.

"I came over to pick you up, but you weren't around, so I decided to wander and look for you!" He exclaimed, clearly happy to have found her.

"Yeah…" _Whoever's up there, thanks millions._

She sighed, but instantly inhaled after hearing his question, "So, where were you rushing to?"

Arisa gulped nervously. Should she fess up and risk getting into massive loads of trouble, or…lie her butt off to live to see another day.

To her, seeing another day sounds amazing, so that's exactly what she did.

After folding her hands together and shifting her weight to the right, she began, "Oh, just—"

"Don't lie to me Arisa-chan," Kuukai interrupted giving her a stern look.

Her eyes instantly widened, "H-how did you know I was going to lie?" she demanded. A playful smile crept up onto his face and he responded, "You always lean to your left, so when I saw you lean to your right I already figured something was up."

She scowled and pouted, "Well now, I'm just not going to tell you."

Kuukai pouted and leaned towards her. The halls were currently empty and they were all alone. Arisa's breathing suddenly became heavy as the tall boy leaned closer and closer suddenly; she broke out of her given trance and took this chance to dash out of his grasp and up the stairs.

Realizing her disappearance, he sighed, _what is the matter with me…?_

-

When she ran far away enough from Kuukai, she stopped to catch her breath, leaning against a wall. When she set one of her hands on her face, she could feel that it's highly risen in temperature. She sighed to herself, taking the situation at hand into priority.

No, not how Kuukai was being…weird, 'tutor-san'.

She stood in front of the classroom, with a determined look in her eyes, ready to face whatever punishment, so what she never expected was to find her tutor, standing by Tsukiga. Even for a 5th grader, he is tall, she thought.

But the fact that Tsukiga was there with him shocked her even more. Didn't they have a fight or something?

Just as she caught their attention, Tsukiga rushed out the room pushing past Arisa blushing twelve shades of red at once.

"Eh…sorry, I think I interrupted something important…" Arisa muttered, bowing in apology.

"I-it's alright," he grumbled. Clearly, he was annoyed, but his face was void of any emotion and Arisa couldn't tell what he was thinking.

Feeling somewhat awkward in this situation, Arisa asked him, "So I'm kind of looking for my tutor…he's a 4th grader who's apparently really smart, so I was wondering if he was in here…"

When her eyes collided wit his, she watched as his bright blue eyes widened for a fraction of a second then returned to normal.

"Hoshiwa-senpai, that would be me."

She could've sworn he looked disappointed; he then bowed to her, "Sanjou Kairi, it's an honour to serve you."

Arisa's face suddenly flushed, "Likewise, but…you don't have to be so formal with me!" He glanced up, sending her a curious look, then straightened himself and nodded.

"Well it's late now, so we'll begin tomorrow." As he was about to leave the pink, orange room, she caught up to him, "Hey, did Nikaidou-sensei say anything about any certain…punishment for me?"

He shook his head, then left the room, muttering a quick good bye and leaving the room.

Arisa sighed, Tokyo is so weird…

After collecting her papers, and books, she left the room, sliding the door shut behind her. She walked down the hall to the stairs, staring out the window as she did. Suddenly, she let out a small yelp, as she collided with a walking pile of books.

…In other words, Nikaidou-sensei.

"Ah! Sensei—gomen, gomen, gomen!" Arisa repeated, preparing herself for the fury of her teacher. She hastily shuffled some papers around her in a pile and had began picking up some heavy textbooks before she realized that she hadn't received the lecture of a life time.

She glanced up from her book collecting, to see Nikaidou also collecting books, not saying a word. Once they completed the minor task, Arisa handed her pile of books to him, bowing.

"I'm sorry for this…and earlier too." She told him, bent over, still bowing.

There was a tense silence until a light hearted laugh escaped the teacher's mouth, "It's alright Hoshiwa-san. I'm sure you were just having an off day…along with someone else," his eyes glanced at her pouch, carrying her two eggs.

Chocolate brown eyes widened, "You can see them?! But Kuukai said that people without charas are unable to see them!"

This caused Nikaidou to sigh, "It's a long story Hoshiwa-san, but I'll be sure to tell you one day. Right now, I think you have somebody waiting for you," he smiled and gazed at the bottom of the stairs, where the green-eyed Souma stood, waiting patiently with his skateboard and uniform jacket in hand.

A bright smile erupted on Arisa's face, "Arigatou Nikaidou-sensei!" She ran down the stairs, past Kuukai clearly challenging him to a race. A laugh bubbled up her throat as she ran past the boy and in the direction of their home, wile Kuukai followed close behind her on his skateboard, his shirttails flapping behind him in the wind.

A small appeared on Nikaidou's face, but it soon became a frown, "If what I head about her power is right…it's very likely Easter is going to target her," he gave an exasperated sigh, "no wonder I quit…I hate kids."

-

The two crashed through the front door, shouting at each other.

"I won!"

"No you didn't! I beat you!"

"You couldn't even beat me and you had your skateboard!"

"You were clearly in chara-change!"

"Oh, so you admit I win?"

Two of Kuukai's other siblings poked their heads through the door frame to observe the current commotion, staring intently.

Suusui sighed, and called Arisa into the kitchen, "Arisa-san, a letter came for you today."

The fighting pair froze in their wrestling position, and stared at the oldest of the brothers. At first there was a dead silence, then when Arisa finally realized she squealed loudly; very, very loudly.

"Kyaa! Hiro-chan!" She swiftly removed her shoes and sped into the kitchen, causing Kuukai to fall over, since he was leaning on her.

When she stepped onto the tiled flooring, the slipperiness of her socks, caused to fall over and land on her butt. As she did, she knocked her hand on the wooden table, causing it to shake and a small white envelope flutter off the table and into her lap.

After recovering from the impact, she squealed once again and hastily ripped the envelope open, while crossing her legs. And seeing how she was still wearing the unsightly school uniform, whoever was to stand in front of her, it wouldn't be pretty at all.

Just then, Hana stepped into the room, sweeping ideally, but when she passed Arisa at her first glance, fires erupted in her eyes and she quickly pulled Arisa up by the back of her shirt as she choked at the sudden motion.

"Goodness Arisa-chan—" she began, but was interrupted.

"Seriously, Hana-san, don't call me that." Arisa retorted, crossing her arms stubbornly.

"But if you're going to sit, don't sit cross-legged. Unkai and Rento might do something weird…" she drifted off and once she saw Kuukai walk into the room she got an idea.

"But don't worry; I'm sure Kuukai-chan will protect you from anything and everything."

This statement caused both Kuukai and Arisa to freeze on the spot and blush like mad.

"I-I'm going to go open Hiro-chan's letter upstairs," Arisa muttered, quickly excusing herself as Kuukai did the same. The woman smiled, "They are so cute."

Upstairs, they each jumped into their respective beds. Arisa sat cross legged—just how she shouldn't be and Kuukai was thoroughly absorbed in one of his many sport magazines, while Arisa continued ripping the envelope open.

For a moment, Kuukai's neon green eyes flickered over in Arisa's direction, watching her read the letter intently, smiling widely. His lips tugged upwards for a moment, then returned to reading his magazine.

As she read, her smile grew wider at each sentence she sped past, and once she finished she would read it again.

-

_Ari-kun, _

_It's great to hear from you! I'm awesome, yes, it's true. And wow; just wow. RAPED?? My little Ari-chan can't be raped! If so…uwaaa, don't worry, I won't tell your parents. And guess what?! The math competition is going on again! So if I make it to the finals, you'll be in town! If not, whaa, I'll cry! So basically, wish me luck! Heh, we all need some luck right now, don't we? Well, good luck to you! Just remember, don't go getting a boyfriend before letting me approve first. Oh yeah, and as for not blowing stuff up…I'll try to fix my microwave._

_-Hiro-chan _

-

Reading over once more, Arisa folded the paper and placed it into the large box he had given her. Her gaze wandered over to Kuukai was just plainly lying on his bed, having a small conversation with Daichi.

Receiving a sudden, yet immense wave of boredom, Arisa made her way across the room and picked up her leather briefcase with ease, taking it over to the wooden desk.

"What are you doing?" Kuukai called over to her. Arisa took the two eggs and placed them on the desk. Koorei's egg clicked open and Koorei peeked out.

Arisa smiled and gestured him out of his egg. He floated out somewhat translucent and tired looking.

The brunette looked at him worriedly, "Eh? Koorei, are you okay?" His usually bright blue eyes were dull and downcast as he floated up to her gloomily. After several moments of no response, she looked over at Kuukai and called him over. "Hey Kuukai, I think something's wrong with Koorei,"

One of his brows rose curiously and he hurried over to her side to examine the chara.

He sat on the chair with Arisa and bent down to look at Koorei at eye level. His face was fixed in an expression of great concentration, and startled Arisa when she suddenly sat up, while she fell off the chair.

Normally Koorei would be in hysterics, but his expression remained emotionless.

Once she had recovered from the impact, she leaned against the desk and propped herself up. Arisa glanced worriedly at Koorei, then at Kuukai.

"Kuukai…?" She began. The girl watched as he closed his bright green eyes for a moment, creasing his brows together; deep in thought. They suddenly shot open and after taking a confirming glance at Koorei, he turned to the young Hoshiwa who was sitting cluelessy on the floor.

"Arisa…I think I know what's wrong with Koorei," he began. Arisa's eyes widened at the serious tone in his voice.

For a while, he explained how if you stop believing in yourself for something, your chara will slowly fade away and your dream will be lost. So in this case, Arisa didn't want to have a cocky, irresponsible, loud, annoying, boy-ish character which is why Koorei had become so translucent and silent. If she were to continue her dislike of that character, Koorei was sure to disappear.

Arisa's face was struck with nothing but sadness. She only had her chara for a couple days and had already screwed it up. Her chocolate coloured eyes shut, then opened with determination shining in her eyes. She stood up and shoved Kuukai off the chair, ignoring his cry of pain.

She stared at Koorei the happily smiled, "Okay, I've got a mountain of homework to do, and the only way to finish it by morning is the fast, boy way," she paused and brightened her smile, "And I know just the chara for this!"

Suddenly Koorei's expression brightened and he returned to his normal state.

"From a slow worker to someone faster; faster, quicker speeding; CHARA CHANGE!" He shouted, enthusiastic as ever.

So for the rest of the night Arisa worked hard with Koorei on each question, not caring for the answer much.

She pressed on until the early hours, when she finally completed the final question; she smiled; smiled until it hurt. She looked down at her chara, who had loyally stood by her side for every passing hour, giving her words of encouragement and even helping her with the questions.

As she turned around to announce to Kuukai that she has finally finished her work, she realized that the entire house was dark except for the table lamp that lit her work. Also that Kuukai was slumbering peacefully in his bed, shuffling every now and then.

Her bright smile softened into a gentle one, and once her reign of hyperness has ended, her eye sight began to blur and suddenly she became light headed and she collapsed in onto the desk, falling asleep, with the pencil loosely sitting in her hand.

Koorei, also beat, floated towards the lamp and clicked it off, then retreated to his egg for the night.

Still somewhat conscious, Arisa smiled and ceremonially threw her pencil across the room, earning a small crashing sound from something it had hit.


	8. Another Mysterious Chara Change

**Hi…I'm sleepy and it's the middle of the day. YAY SUMMER! XD …Can't think of much to say, so enjoy the chapter and please review :3**

**Shugo Chara! And its characters all belong to Peach-Pit. I'm too lazy to deal with them now anyway xD**

**Warning for: Kuukai hawtness, skating and…extra character over-load.**

The Colours of Love: Chapter 7

Another Mysterious Chara-Change

The next morning, Kuukai awake with the sun, as he did every morning. He was somewhat shocked to see Arisa's bed empty, but smiled of relief when he saw her fast asleep on his desk. He got out of bed as quietly as he could and made his way over to her, while dragging a blanket with him.

As he stepped beside her, he draped the thin blanket over her shoulders, receiving a satisfied sigh from her. He smiled and began his morning routine, as the girl slumbered on.

Finally, after about an hour, Arisa's lids fluttered open and she looked around the room; no Kuukai in sight. She sat up in the chair, stretching her limbs, earning some very relieving cracks in return. Arisa then stood up to stretch her legs, more cracks. The young girl sighed, Hiro's right, she thought, maybe I will snap into pieces one day.

Dismissing the random thought, she looked down at her wrinkled uniform and scowled, "Crap, I forgot to change."

She unbuttoned the top two buttons of the dress shirt and stretched one last time before exiting the room onto the hallway, headed for the bathroom. As she passed by one of the windows, the golden rays of the sun blinded her for a moment, but once she adjusted her sight, she stared dreamily as a small flock of birds suddenly flew past the window in a panic, shocking her out of her trace. She sighed; I am such an air head.

She opened the door of the bathroom, still half asleep and was shocked when she came face to face with, yes again; shirtless Kuukai. His amber coloured hair was wet and drooping, due to the water. He had a dark green towel on his head, and brown cargo pants, sitting comfortably on his waist.

She instantly knew it was a mistake when she looked down, at her feet from embarrassment, because when she did, her face flushed when she caught sight of his well-endowed stomach muscles; also known as, his abs.

At first, the two of them were silent, heat quickly rising to their cheeks, then suddenly Arisa turned and ran down the stairs as fast as she could, leaving a clueless Kuukai behind.

When she stepped into the kitchen, she was greeted by the usual scenery, but this time, Kuukai's mom was on the phone with someone. Probably someone she knew, since she was laughing like a maniac. Just as Arisa sat down she shoved Rento off his chair and conquered his breakfast as her own. Hana walked over to her and handed her the wireless phone.

"Arisa-chan it's your mom."

She took the phone gingerly in her hands, since when did we get a phone…?

"Hey mom," she greeted, somewhat awkwardly.

At first, there was a silence then her mom greeted her as well. Arisa had always been quite open with her parents so her first question was obviously, "Mom, since when did we have a phone?"

The woman snickered and answered her question, then wasted no time to talk about her main reason for calling.

"Arisa-chan, you made friends besides Kuukai-kun right?"

At first, she hesitated, suspicious of her mom. Then she replied with a simple yes.

"Are any of them female?"

Busted; suddenly remembering, her mom DID tell her to make an effort of making female friends…but she did!

"Yes; two of them!" She didn't really count Rima, Amu or Yaya as her friends yet. First of all, she never really liked Amu all that much, Rima thought she was boring and she just never really spoke to Yaya.

There was another silence from the other end, just as Arisa was going to say something her mother cut her off, "You know it wouldn't kill you to make more girl friends."

Arisa scowled, knowing this lecture by heart by now, "But it could internally scar me for life," she responded, while rolling her eyes.

She heard her mom sigh, "Arisa-chan, you've nearly blown the house up on multiple occasions and you won't take that chance?"

The girl gave an exasperated sigh as she took a bite of the toast sitting on the plate, "Seriously mom, I thought you'd be happy that I made even one girl friend, but I guess not."

Her mother sighed as well, "Arisa-chan, just try a little harder. I'll see you later."

"Bye mom…"

Arisa handed the phone back to Hana who took it to another room without uttering a word to her. The young girl finished Rento's breakfast and proceeded back up the stairs to pack up her things for school.

On her wait up the wooden stairs, she walked past Kuukai who was wearing a simple long sleeved shirt along with the same pants from earlier.

"What's with the lack of a uniform?" Arisa asked, dismissing the memory of that morning from her mind.

"It's a Guardian and ex-Guardian retreat today! So you don't need to wear your uniform today," his cheeks turned pink for a moment, he probably remembered, she thought, blushing herself.

A tense silence followed then Arisa announced that she'd go and change and awkwardly walked around Kuukai, dashing up the stairs.

She crashed through the bedroom door, slamming it shut behind her and dived into her bed, blushing like mad.

"Uwaa…stupid Kuukai…"

Arisa laid in bed until Koorei floated over to her and simply kicked her until she got up, which wasn't too long. She sat up and looked at the clock.

Another day, another morning rush.

She ran over to the dresser where she had placed her clothes in, and pulled out a plain, grey long sleeved shit, a royal purple t-shirt, a pair of light brown cargo pants and put them on as quickly as she could. The weather was beginning to cool down, so she had to stop wearing t-shirts wherever she went or else she'd catch a cold.

She grabbed all the papers off the desk and shoved them into the briefcase, disregarding if they were important or not.

Just as she was leaving the room, she grabbed her camoflaudge baseball cap and the pouch containing her two eggs. As she ran down the stairs Koorei floated by her, mentally preparing himself for chara-change.

She wasted no time putting her shoes on and just as she opened the door, she called to the family, "I'm leaving!"

The four stopped whatever they were doing and stared at her. She waited for a response but gave up and continued out the door.

"A-Arisa!" Kuukai called after her, quickly grabbing his skateboard and dashing after her.

As he slammed the door shut behind him, the remaining four family members sighed in unison, "So energetic in the morning," then returned to…whatever they were doing before.

-

Kuukai set his skateboard down on the cement sidewalk and jumped onto it, quickly accelerating, until he caught up to her.

"Arisa, wait up!" He called. She was already at the first cross walk, so if he didn't hurry up he'd loose her in the massive crowds of people.

Exhaling deeply he called to Daichi, "Daichi! Chara-change!" The little guardian did as he was told and suddenly a star clip appeared in the soccer player's hair and his skateboard lifted slightly off the ground and raced ahead until he was side by side the still sprinting girl.

"Seriously Arisa, what's the rush?" The white goggles and gloves were on, indicating her chara change. She sprinted around people, until she reached the school grounds, with Kuukai cruising alongside her.

Once they reached the gate, they were both panting, bent over and trying to catch their breaths. Kuukai was about to ask her again, but before he could, she sped into the school grounds, past all the present students and through the door.

He sighed and leaned against the school gate, admitting his defeat, Might as well just wait out here for her, he thought.

Even though the bell still had not rung, Arisa barged through the front doors of the school, to her destination. She sped up the stairs and through the hallways receiving strange looks from the teachers and staff she had passed by. Finally she stopped in front of her classroom 'Star Class 6' and pulled the door open.

From the first impression, she expected Nikaidou to fall under a pile of monstrous textbooks, but when the door slammed against the wall, she looked up and saw Nikaidou sensei, without his glasses on, and a woman about his age with burgundy hair under him, leaning against his desk. His hands were…not where they were supposed to, and basically, they looked like they were about to do something very…inappropriate for grade school.

"H-Hoshiwa-san, this isn't what it—"

Before he could finish his sentence a certain blue-eyed 4th grader walked by, carrying several books and papers in his hands. When he glanced into the room, his jaw dropped along with the books he was carrying.

"K-Kairi!" The woman called.

His eyes widened, causing his glasses to slip down his nose, "N-nee-san? What are you doing awake so early in the morning? Didn't you have a hangover last night?"

Arisa sighed, "Dude; we just caught my teacher and your sister making out and that's all you worry about?"

Kairi, who was surprisingly as tall, but almost taller then her, sent her a stern look and responded, "It's not normal, and she's my sister so I'll worry about what I want with her!"

As the duo sent glares to each other, the couple in the classroom, stood up and straightened their clothes, keeping a safe distance from each other.

"And what are you doing here so early in the morning anyway?" Arisa demanded.

"I could say the same to you! You don't exactly look like the one who loves school, or is any good at it for that matter," Kairi shot back.

"Eat fist four-eyes! Nobody breaks my best friend's heart and gets away that easily!!" Arisa suddenly cried.

Even their charas had caught their fighting spirit and began a rough wrestle with each other. Arisa had acknowledged Kairi's chara the first time they had met, and learnt his name after Koorei had called him some appalling names.

Just as Arisa was about to plant a rather frightening punch into the younger boy's face, Nikaidou gave an attention seizing cough, which made the duo turn their heads over to look at him.

"Hoshiwa-san, did you need something?" he asked, putting his glasses back on.

Her face instantly brightened as she released Kairi from her vice grip on his collar, "My homework; I finished it!"

She riffled through the books of her bag, then her hand finally emerged with a thick packet of paper stapled together at the corner,

He sent her a satisfied smile and took it gingerly in his hands, "Thank you Hoshiwa-san, now you have permission to go on the retreat with the Guardians today."

Arisa let out an excited cry, then waved her teacher farewell.

"I'll finish up with you," she pointed an angered finger at Kairi and glared, "later."

She ran down the hallway and exited the building to find Kuukai sitting against the gate, awaiting her arrival.

"Hello there, since you look satisfied can you tell me what the hell happened to you?" He asked, standing up and brushing the dirt off his pants.

She sent him a playful smile, "It's a secret! ~" causing the Souma to scowl and walk after her after had had ran ahead in the direction of the Royal Garden.

When they finally arrived, Arisa crashed through the door of the Royal Garden, riding Kuukai's skateboard and slammed into a bush, falling over and sending Kuukai's skateboard flying, until it broke…well whatever it was it sounded expensive.

All the Guardians were there to witness this freakishly amazing crash, and ran over to her to make sure she was still alive.

"Arisa-san!" Tadase called in concern.

Kuukai pulled her up by the arm after retrieving his skateboard and pulled some stray twigs and leaves she had gained from the crash.

"I'm okay! And Kuukai, next time I ask you if I could ride your skateboard, say no," Arisa scolded, as she attempted to regain her balance.

"But," She continued, "I'm going to end up riding it anyway," the young girl smiled and walked over to Tsukiga and Shinyu who were waiting for her.

"Ne, now that Arisa-chan and Kuukai are here, we can go right?" Yaya chirped, jumping up and down from excitement.

Nagihiko responded with a nod and gathered everyone at the front of the Royal Garden.

After clarifying some instructions or 'guidelines' they set off, walking together in the direction of the large dome, Tokyo Arena.

Arisa ran ahead of the group, clearly hyper and the most enthusiastic after learning that they were going on a skating trip. She kept telling the group to hurry up until they finally arrived at the large dome.

She sped inside, down the numerous flights of stairs and called to the familiar girl behind the countertop.

"Sachiko-senpai, size five skates for your new favourite customer!" She called, sitting on the countertop.

"My Arisa-chan, ditching school already?" She laughed, heading to the back to the room where the skates are kept. She was wearing a thick sweater covered in black and blue polka dots, along with a simple navy scarf around her neck.

Arisa glanced closer into the little office and saw a pile of used Kleenexes in the lavender waste bin next to the chair she was found sitting in.

"What about you? Aren't you supposed to be in school too?" Arisa asked.

The older girl returned with a pair of skates in hand and a tissue at her nose, "I thought it was obvious," she threw the tissue onto the ever-increasing pile and continued, "I caught the cold, so my dad said I could work."

Hesitating for a moment Arisa finally spoke, "But shouldn't you be resting at home?"

"Nah, my dad thinks I heal better when I'm around the rink. It's not the same as back home, but its cool enough," Sachiko shrugged and walked to the back on the room again. After waiting for several minutes, Arisa hopped off the counter and walked over to the benches to put her skates on.

Just before she began, the rest of the group entered the rink, chatting amongst themselves. After Kuukai, Nagihiko and Tadase received their skates, she watched as Amu, Yaya and Rima converse with Sachiko over the fashion magazine she was previously reading.

They laughed and giggled as they flipped through the pages and by the time they were finished Arisa had brushed them off and finished typing her skates.

The three other female Guaridnas kept talking and talking, but as they did, Arisa couldn't help but feel a bit left out. As a life-long tomboy (thanks to someone by the name of Hiro) she was normally left out of female related conversations and recently wished to be part of them. Who knows, if she were about to dye her hair's a different colour, it'd be…interesting.

Soon after, Kuukai sat down next to her along with Nagihiko and Tadase.

She watched in awe as Nagihiko conversed with the girls, submitting a comment every so often. Arisa sighed in defeat, even an actual boy can be around girls easier than me.

When she fastened the final lace of her skates, she stood up and adjusted her shirt and glanced down at Kuukai.

His leg was propped on the bench as he tugged and tugged at his laces. She silently laughed to herself then walked over to him and sat down on the floor in front of him.

He sent a look of confusion at her as she forcefully pulled his foot to the floor until it was nestled comfortably between her legs.

"You're really slow you know," she stated, pulling on his laces and gaining progress much quicker than him.

He gave a grunt in response and turned his head to the side, blushing slightly, recalling the previous events when they went to the rink together.

As she worked through his laces, she heard whispers that she hears a little too often for her liking.

"He he, they're so cute together!"

She grumbled bitterly to herself and tugged extra hard on one of his laces, causing the Souma to give out a small yelp in surprise.

"Violent today," he grumbled.

Once she finished, she stood up and stretched, her muscles irritated from being bent over for so long.

As she stood up properly, she noticed a figure coming out of the dressing rooms, putting on a pair of black gloves. Arisa instantly recognized her for her long blonde hair, but it was now pulled back in a low ponytail, and the usual gold on her clothes. But this time, she was wearing all black, with gold accents.

When she walked past her, they exchanged a quick glanced, then looked away. Rika walked over to the ice and leaned against the wall separating the ice and the floor with a dazed expression on her face.

Finally, the gate to the ice opened, and Rika stepped onto the ice, gliding gracefully. Arisa looked back at her friends who were long ready, and motioned them to follow her onto the ice.

Tsukiga had an almost nauseous expression on her face when she shakily stepped onto the ice.

"Tsu-chi, are you okay?" Arisa asked, supporting her by the arms. She nodded shakily and tried steadying herself, until she was able to skate properly.

Arisa was one of the best skaters, but directly after receiving the comment from Negihiko, Kuukai decided otherwise.

"Fujisaki-kun; what about me? Aren't I the best skater?" He cried, imitating a humorous form of distress.

Nagihiko have a small, apologetic smile and tilted his head to the side, "Sorry, Souma-kun, but Arisa-chan is just better than you," Arisa playfully stuck her tongue out at him and skated ahead leaving him to silently fume.

"I'll show her," he declared, speeding up to her, as she was with Shinyu and Tsukiga by the wall. He suddenly stopped directly in front of them, sending a spray of shredded ice landing all over her cargo pants. While Shinyu yelped in freight and raised her hands in defence, Arisa fumed, "Hilarious Souma, I heard black goes with green, so let's make you pretty and add a black eye to those sorry green ones of yours!"

She chased him relentlessly around the ice, shouting random threats at him.

Then, eventually she opted to doing what she does best; she pushed forward as quickly as she could, and pounced onto him sending both of them, sliding until they came to a crashing stop against the wall.

"Kuukai; I'm got blades on the bottom of my feet, so it'd be a lot smarter to never do that ever again."

All and every innocent bystanders can feel the anger radiating off her.

"Take your demotion like a man, why don't you!" She cried, wrestling with him.

He gritted his teeth and shoved her off, "Well stop taking your 'promotion' so greatly since we never even duelled." He stated boldly.

She recovered and stood up, crossing her arms, "Souma Kuukai, are you challenging me?"

His lips tugged upwards into a playful grin, "Maybe I am _hime-chan." (_Princess)

The remaining Guardian's mouths formed the shape of an O and "Oooooh-ed" knowing how Arisa hated being called anything girly. Actually; she already hated people calling her 'Arisa-chan', so 'hime-chan' was going to blow her roof off.

"One round around the ice," she told him venomously, glaring daggers at the smirking boy.

He nodded and grinned even wider while she sported a dark scowl on her face and skated over to the start line they have selected. They had forced Rika to judge, having met the Guardians once before and being easily persuaded by Kuukai.

They took their positions and prepared themselves for when they would give the signal.

"Prepare to eat your words Souma."

"Right after I show your pretty ass up, hime-chan."

Arisa hissed and held her remarks back, knowing they'll easily distract her.

"GO!" Yaya cried and the duo sped from the line across the ice in a flash. When Arisa raced someone, the same rule applies; blink and you miss the entire thing.

After staring for about ten seconds, they were on the other end of the ice, not even breaking a sweat.

"So Rika-san, who won?" Arisa asked, after smacking Kuukai on the arm.

The blonde gave a devastated stare and was silent for a moment, and then she blinked lamely and finally said, "I…have no clue."

Kuukai and Arisa recommenced glaring at each other and growled at the same time, "Rematch; you better not chara change, cheater."

They sped back to the starting line and went again…and again, and again.

At first, it was best 2 out of 3, but soon, best 2 out of 3 became best 3 out of 5, and 3 out of 5 quickly became best out of 15 out of 17.

Finally, they collapsed against the wall in exhaustion, panting.

Rika had gone back to absentmindedly skating, and twirling around the ice as the rest of the Guardians approached them.

Shinyu heaved a sigh, "See Nagihiko-kun? This is what happens when you say one of them is better than the other."

He gave an apologetic look at the two, but they were too busy glaring at each other to notice.

Tsukiga sighed too, holding onto the wall for support, "I never thought it'd come down to it, but I have an idea to solve this," she said, shoving roughly past Kairi, not even acknowledging him.

Chocolate brown eyes and neon green ones stared into her bright orange orbs as they both asked simultaneously, "How?"

"Rock, paper, scissors of course," she said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

At first they gave a blank stare, but recommenced glaring at each other, placing their hands out with their palms up, preparing for the simplest game of rock, paper, scissors.

Too bad they never noticed how it has nothing to do with skating.

Hiro, who Arisa's mom overheard, told Kuukai's mom, who Kuukai over heard, the weakness that would come to her downfall. (Yes, everyone's pretty insane at the moment) Arisa Hoshiwa; loves sharp things and would obviously choose scissors.

"Rock! Paper! Scissors!" They cried together, and placed their hand symbol down on their palms.

Kuukai; rock.

Arisa; scissors.

Her eyes widened in shock, but quickly overcome the defeat and lunged onto him, "I'm still better than you!!"

They fought (yes, again) until Arisa sat atop him. Just as she was going to voice yet another nasty remark, she caught sight of Rika who was skilfully spinning on the spot with her leg raised up in the air. She finished her spin gracefully and glanced over at the group.

Their eyes connected and Arisa's eyes, darted away and went back to Kuukai, "Just…I'm going to show you, I'm better than you."

She got off his torso and skated a bit ahead on her own.

Before Kuukai could go after her, he was pulled aside by Amu and Yaya, so they could catch up. After sending a worried glance at the girl, he complied and put on a bright smile.

Arisa's mind wandered and she couldn't help but sometimes stare at Rika. The blonde, danced gracefully around the ice, sometimes jumping or spinning and finishing gracefully with her arms stretched out.

Seeing Rika figure skate knocked one of Arisa's long forgotten memories back into her head. The memories she had when she watched girls figure skate and laugh with each other at practices.

She had thought of trying figure skating, and being able to dance on the ice since her relatives weren't very impressed with her hockey skating, saying she's 'good.' But Arisa always wanted better than good, so she thought of figure skating so that she'll be recognized for once.

But the only problem that held her back was that she was scared. Yes; she was scared. She was most comfortable with her hockey skates and figure skates always strangled the life out of her feet.

'If I could figure skate…then maybe I'd be a little more female…but the outfits are so girly.'

She felt a shiver sun up her spine, but shrugged it off.

But over by the bleachers where Arisa had left her pouch and eggs, a curious white egg peeked out and floated out of the bag and in the direction on the ice rink.

Kuukai had long left the girls and trailed after Arisa, searching for a sign of her being…emotionally stable, eventually, he just gave up and skated over to the boys who were skating ideally discussing several Guardian related matters.

Arisa gloomily circled the ice, deep in her thoughts.

'Even if I do become good at figure skating, nobody will take me seriously in every other sport ever again. That's what always happens. Girls and sports like that are always treated girlier than most. And my well earned tomboy reputation would be destroyed, obliterated, extinguished, and any other word for destruction.'

She rambled on in her mind, until she opted to sitting down on the bleachers.

Almost directly above her, a crystal white egg with light blue designs on it floated, relaxed. Just then, it cracked open and a small girl with her sky blue hair pulled back and held with a clip. She giggled and floated closer to her owner.

Her thought continued, but was suddenly interrupted when she heard a voice.

"If you want to figure skate, then go! From one of the boys to your own girly self! Dancing, ribbons, bows, chara-change!"

Arisa's eyes flew open, here it goes again.

A checkered purple and white scarf around her neck along with fingerless gloves similar to Koorei suddenly appeared. Her legs unwillingly dashed over to Sachiko who was sitting boredly behind the counter. Arisa sprang onto the counter and hastily pried the laces of her skates off.

"Arisa…are you okay?" The older girl had asked.

An exuberant smiled appeared on Arisa's face as she giggled--Yes; _giggled_, and responded, "Sachi-chan, I need figure skates on the double!"

Sachiko' teal blue hair had hung in her face, and was quickly blown aside as she stood and took Arisa's removed hockey skates and returned with a pair of white figure skates, yawning.

"I don't know what Kuukai-kun is feeding you, but here you go," she said lazily, handing them to Arisa.

Arisa took the skates and bounded over to the bleachers and tied them as quickly and as tight as she could. Eventually, she finished and ran back to the ice, almost tripping.

She stared down at her feet and pushed forward. For the entire period of time, she couldn't think. It was like something was capturing all her panicked thoughts and making sure they never got out.

After getting the hang of the figure skates, she sped forward for a jump she had once learnt; the waltz jump.

It was vague but this unknown force seemed to understand it perfectly. She picked up speed and had acquired the curious gaze of the Guardians, while Rika tried her best to ignore the girl.

Arisa spun, twiled, and danced around the ice, until she was pulled aside by the ever-popular Souma.

"Arisa, I never knew you could figure skate. Are you feeling okay?" He asked, with his hand on her arm, gripping her slightly. She let loose another giggle and responded, "I'm fine Kuukai-kun! How are you doing?"

She folded her hands together and bent over slightly batting her eyelashes, giving him the most innocent and…girly look he has ever seen.

"I'm…fine. But you're the one who's acting weird, Ari-kun," Kuukai told her, leaning back slightly, now uncomfortable.

She giggled, _again_, "Kuukai-kun you can call me _Arisa-chan_ if you'd like."

Kuukai couldn't help but gulp nervously, clearly uncomfortable with the current situation. She pressed herself closer to him as he slowly backed away. Arisa's hand wandered onto his own, while a wolf whistle could be heard from across the rink. (coughShinyu)

Shinyu had been greatly interested with the duo since Arisa reappeared on the ice. She was leaning forward in anticipation, and acquiring strange stares from Tsukiga.

Then all of the sudden, the scarf and gloves disappeared and Arisa regained her senses. She stared wide-eyes at the Souma she had gotten so close to and instinctively…punched him in the stomach.

He swiftly dodged her sudden attack, but when she spun around on her skates, she sent another punch upwards to his chin. The punch successfully connected and left Kuukai on the ice; down for the count.

The rest of the Guardians rushed over, along with Arisa who fell to her knees and shook him by the arm, pulling him up.

"Sorry Kuukai! I-it was an accident!" She cried.

For a moment, he felt his chin and flexed his jaw, receiving a cracking sound. He smiled contently, the stared at her, "How was that an accident? You _punched me in the face!_"

Arisa looked away sheepishly and muttered, "That's just 'cause you dodged the first punch.

Kuukai scowled, and looked at Arisa's apologetic face, then burst out laughing.

"You're lucky I can't hit a girl," he teased.

"Even if you do, who says you'll be able to hit me?" She shot back, sticking her tougne out and resuming her tomboy personality.

The Guardians laughed while Shinyu sobbed, "But Arisa-chan was going to kiss him…" This caused Arisa to fume, "Do you want me to punch you in the face too?"

Shinyu quickly skated off, as far away from Arisa as possible. Arisa sighed and averted her attention back to Kuukai. "Sorry…" she muttered.

"So why did you punch me to begin with?"

Arisa paused to think about it, then replied, sounding unsure of herself, "…Instinct?"

Less than a moment later, they all burst out laughing. A loud bell rand through their ears, causing some of them to flinch, and signalling the end of the skating.

They exited the ice laughing, and removed their skates. As they returned them, Sachiko leaned forward, over the counter and placed her hand on Arisa's forehead. Feeling the coolness of her skin, she pulled her hand away and told her, "You were acting really weird, so I thought I have you my cold."

A playful punch landed on Arisa's upper arm, "I told you so," Kuukai said.

She punched him back and looked around, above her, _what WAS that?_

After walking a small part of the way home with the Guardians, Kuukai and Arisa turned down his street after waving their friends goodbye.

They passed by several houses, and a playground, similar the one Arisa had run off to the other say. She cringed at the memory.

A boy with light brown hair and a simple green sweater passed by, with a German Shepherd pulling eagerly on his leash as he passed by Arisa. The large dog, sniffed around her legs, causing the girl to acknowledge his presence and stop to look at him.

The boy sent a small smile, and waved to his dog, giving the girl permission to pet him.

As Arisa bent over to pet the large dog, who was happily licking at her face, she subconsciously thought, Cute dude…

From that point, she just dismissed it as one of her pointless comments and commenced rubbing the dog behind his ears.

After, she glanced up at the other boy, who smiled at her; she smiled as well as feeling a slight tingle in her chest. She instinctively smiled and stared into his bright turquoise eyes. Kuukai watched as her face tinted a light shade of pink, as she smiles. After an agonizingly long time (for Kuukai) and after the boy's dog had calmed down, they parted ways.

After the encounter, Kuukai was strangely silent. But he wasn't alone; Arisa was too busy contemplating on the boy earlier.

_Who was that guy anyway? I had no idea who he was, but I thought he was cute? I'm being such a slut today… _

In the distance, the white egg, followed. The chara peeked out of her egg and sighed, "Mou…slow down girly."

-

Kuukai unlocked the door, giving a shove to open and called to no one in particular, "We're home!"

Receiving a silence as he took his shoes off, he wandered around the house, as Arisa trailed him. They wandered into the kitchen, and found yet another note on the table.

_Out for errands. Your brothers are upstairs, dinners in the fridge. _

Kuukai crumpled the note in his fist and shrugged, making his way over to the fridge, only to find Arisa, bent over staring intently into it.

As he approached her, she suddenly shot out of the fridge and stood up straight with a water bottle in her hand.

"I like your fridge, lots of good food," she joked, unscrewing the bottle with ease.

He shrugged and pushed past her, grabbing a bottle for himself. He made his way up the stairs. Instinctively, Arisa followed him step by step until they reached halfway up the stairs, when he turned to look at her.

"I'm guessing you have nothing better to do?" He asked.

She shrugged and nodded.

He led her to his room and knelt down next to his bed. Arisa did the same and stared curiously at him. His arms snaked under the bed and stayed down there, forcing Arisa to wait in anticipation.

"Come on! What is it??" She demanded. Her arms shot underneath the bed and felt around until she felt the warmth of his skin against hers. But then her hands came in contact with a box and inside the box…

"KYAAAAA!!!" She squealed, pulling on the box onto her lap. Laid out before her was a vast collection of the one other thing she has learnt to adore (besides sports and food). She had knocked the box over and scattered around her were the greatest collection of video games she has ever seen.

Kuukai quickly covered his ears from the sudden noise and laughed at her reaction.

Arisa scrambled to pick up as many of the cases as she could at once and stare at them all with adrenaline shining in her eyes. Soon the room was filled with shouts of excitement coming from the girl.

After watching her scramble through each case, he reached under his bed and pulled out an orange game controller and tossed it at her.

Her eyes widened and stared at him in disbelief. Kuukai shrugged in response, "It's in Unkai's room so be careful." Arisa laughed and grabbed as many games as she could and dashed off into the direction of the older blonde's room.

After slamming the door behind her, Kuukai kicked the remaining cases back underneath his bed and yawned, bringing his hand up to his forehead.

Even before his hand landed on his skin, he could feel the heat radiating off it and when he did feel his skin, it was burning. He already began to feel light headed and his throat was itching every time he spoke.

Running a hand through his hair, frustrated, he walked over to the lights by the door way and flicked them off, listening to Arisa arguing her way into Unkai's room to play.

Once he reached his bed, he collapsed and everything went black.


	9. Sick

**Yo~ I'm hot and there's a fly buzzing around my head and pissing me off. Life is horrible xD But that doesn't mean you shouldn't enjoy the chapter! :D Review~**

**Shugo Chara belongs to Peach-Pit, blah blah blah. I'm getting sick of writing this xD**

**Warnings for: KUUKARI FLUFF (You may die, and sorry waterdragon, no action here either xD), devious siblings, some indirect kissing and mis-dialing!**

The Colours of Love: Chapter 8

Sick

After playing a whopping five hours of video games straight, Unkai finally kicked Arisa out of his room and forced her to bed.

As she entered the dark room, she found Kuukai in a deep slumber on his bed. She glanced at the clock and finally realized how late it actually was, changed her clothes and went to sleep as well.

That morning, she woke up facing Kuukai's bed, but to her surprise she found Suusui and Rento kneeling by his bed and a rolled up towel sitting on Kuukai's forehead. She grumbled a bit in her sleep, and then sat up, rubbing her eyes.

"Hey guys…what's going on?"

The two immediately looked over at her, then reverted back to Kuukai.

"He has a fever, so he's going to have to stay home today," Suusui reported while holding the towel down onto the youngest sibling's forehead.

Arisa dangled her legs off the bed and stared worriedly at Kuukai, who was lying almost lifelessly on the bed, his face flushed and sweat lining his brow.

"The problem," Rento continued for his brother, "is that the three of us have exams today and we can't miss it. Plus, mom's at a meeting and already left."

For a moment Arisa just stared at him.

"So…you're saying you want me to stay home and make sure he stays alive?" Arisa asked.

Rento replied with a smile, "Basically."

Just then, Unkai entered the room with a tray covered in rags, a tissue box, a mug filled with water and a small bottle of medication. He walked past them and placed it on the night stand next to his bed.

"So Arisa-chan, you're willing to stay home with him?" Unkai asked, being able to hear the conversation from the stairs.

She nodded, causing her pigtails to bob back and forth. After brushing the bangs from her face she turned to the clock. "Shouldn't you guys be getting ready for school or…something?"

Suusui had already left the room, then knocked on the door, wearing a navy blue tie with a plain white dress shirt and a similar navy jacket in his hand along with a grey book bag. "Are you two coming or not?"

The duo growled at him and rushed out of the room, into their own to prepare for school.

After gobbling down breakfast, Rento quickly scribbled down directions for Arisa for taking care of Kuuklai and handed it to her. Unaki pulled a pair of black and scarlet roller blades from the closet and fastened them to his feet.

"I'll let your teacher know you won't be in, the same with Kuukai," he reported, fastening the final buckle on the skates.

Arisa gave a curt nod, then waved them off as they all filed out through the door. After locking it, she walked into the kitchen and picked up the instructions they had left her, written messily on a teal sticky note.

Her eyes ran through each sentence carefully, then suddenly widened at the end, _Give him a kiss and maybe he'll feel a lot better!_ A furious blush reached her cheeks as she scoffed, ignoring the growing feeling in her stomach. "What an idiot…"

Suddenly, she heard a familiar groaning coming from the upstairs bedroom. She rushed up the stairs, with the note in her hand. Arisa skidded to a stop when she entered the room, finding Kuukai rolled over onto his stomach, and his head turned to the side to breath.

A muffled grunt came from the boy as he turned his head a bit to look over at her, caused her to smile. She took a few steps across the room and knelt down next to him.

"Roll over, idiot," Arisa laughed, pushing on hi side, until he was lying on his back again.

She placed her cool palm on his forehead, resting it there for a while. Finally she removed it, and placed a fresh cloth in replacement. She stared down at him, who stared back. Her eyes darted back and forth uncomfortably, when she suddenly asked, "So…do you need anything?"

He thought for a moment, then glanced over at the trey, instantly noticing the lack of food. His lips tugged upwards into a smile, "Food. I am starving!"

Arisa's faced flushed. Food was not exactly her specialty. The last time she tried cooking, she nearly killed herself…along with about everything within 5 kilometres of her house.

"Food…food. Right, food., I got it. Just…wait right here, I'll be back soon."

She nervously shuffled out of the room and down the stairs. Once she entered the kitchen, her eyes darted looking around for the one thing she knew how to make; pancakes.

She dove for the familiar cupboard, prying them open, her eyes scanning through each item.

Peanut butter, popcorn, random spices, ominously un-labelled bottles, some packs of sugar, a small jug of honey, and…lots of other things. But sadly, there was no pancake mix in sight. She dug past the contents of the cupboard, but set herself back onto the floor, empty-handed.

After rifling through the contents of the fridge, she flumped down, into a sitting position and leaned against the wall, admitting her defeat to the kitchen. She let loose a deep sigh, then thought even harder. After a while her thought somehow swerved to memories of Hiro.

She thought about how they first met.

-

_Six__ year old Arisa had been sent on a simple errand to pick up some items from the store, after moving into her new home no less than a week ago. But lacking the sense of direction her father had, and which she sadly didn't inherit, she got lost._

_After wandering the streets she heard voices and shouts coming from the park. _

_A group of about six boys were gathered and chasing after a ball, rolling through each of their legs. _

_Arisa'__s hair had been down at the time, and was blown every which way because of the wind. She put her hands in her pockets and approached them. For a moment she just watched, then called out to them._

_The boys stopped playing for a second, and stared at her. Arisa smiled brightly while they just continued staring. Finally one of them, the oldest she guessed, spoke out, "What do you want?" _

"_Can I play?" Arisa had played hockey at school in her old neighbourhood and was quite good at it. _

_Just before the dark haired boy could respond, one of his 'subordinates' spoke out, "No way! Girls can't play hockey!" _

_This exclamation obviously caused uproar between the boys, directed at the young girl._

"_Go home and play with your dolls!"_

"_You'd just loose and cry!" _

"_Just leave us alone!" _

_Eventually the shouts and disagreements became harsher and harsher, and then finally the sharp blast of a whistle was heard coming from the oldest boy, maybe nine, if not older._

_All the heads of the younger boys swiftly turned to look at him, immediately halting their yells. _

"_Look, we just never played ball hockey with any girls before," He began, crossing his arms and giving a sympathetic look. But suddenly his stare hardened as he continued, "But we do enjoy a challenge once in a while."_

_A smirk tugged the corners of his lips, as he signalled one of the other boys over, who carried two hockey sticks in his hands and handed them to him. _

"_My name is Hiro Atashni, and if you want to play with us, you're going to have to get the ball past me and into the net." A tennis ball was dropped in between them and Arisa took the hockey stick in her small nimble fingers. She cracked her knuckles and positioned her hands, grasping the wooden stick._

_Hiro noticed a mischievous glint in her eyed as she eyes his camoflaudge hat. _

"_I'm Hoshiwa Arisa, and if I do get it in, I get to play, and I get your hat." He smirked and nodded, readying himself._

_Cheers of all the other males surrounded the duo as they faced off. She glanced past him at the goalie, who readied himself as well. _

_She pulled the ball slightly closer to her, signally the beginning of the showdown. For a split second, she glanced upwards at him, being several; inches shorter than the boy. Suddenly, with a quick flick of the wrist, she manoeuvred the stick to flick the ball into the air, until it was about as high as her shoulder._

_Hiro's turquoise eyes widened at the sudden movement, and attempted to block it with his hand, but was a second too late when she hit the ball with the hilt of her stick, sending it flying over his shoulder._

_Arisa swerved around him, following the ball, then readied for a shot. She noticed the older boy approach her from behind, about the take the ball from her, but she sharply turned, sending the boy stumbling as she finally swung at the ball, sending it whizzing past the goalie and into the net._

_And in that epic moment, Arisa gained her right, her pride…and a new hat that she always wore, just for the sake of reminding him how he had lost that day._

-

"Yo! What's taking you so long?"

The sudden noise caused Arisa to flinch and suddenly cry out, "Hiro?!" since she had been thinking about him for the past, who knows how long. Kuukai stared, dumbfounded as her cheek tinted pink.

"I…uh…never mind."

He stared at her with a look of confusion plastered on his face. After a long silence, he finally asked her, "Isn't Hiro your boyfriend or something from your hometown?"

Her eyes flared angrily at him, "Freakit Kuukai; he's not my boyfriend!"

Arisa's sudden outburst caused him to flinch and take a cautious step back. Her eyes glared into his, with her teeth clenched and her hands balled into fists.

Suddenly her glare softened and her ferocious expression dissolved and she quietly mumbled and apology as she brought her knees up to her face.

Kuukai sat down next to her, leaning against the cupboard behind her. "Nah, I should be the one who's sorry. I guess it was a sensitive topic."

Arisa let loose a small laugh, "Everything about me having a boyfriend is a sensitive topic," she looked up at him, being about half a head shorter than him, "Just to let you know."

They sat together in silence, but when Kuukai was supposed to say something, Arisa cut him off, "You know it's all because of Hiro that I'm here right now, telling you this?"

Kuukai cocked a confused brow at her and she smiled dreamily, her eyes glazing over, "If I were never challenged to that hockey challenge of his, I might've ended up like…like," she snickered, "Like Saaya."

She watched Kuukai shiver at the thought, while she continued, "And after I creamed that loser, I hung out with him and his buddies everyday. That led to my hair never being down, since we played sports all the time, using boyish clothes and eventually, receiving Hiro's hand-me-downs."

"What about your mom? She seems pretty keen on getting you to be feminine." Kuukai stated.

Arisa's smile disappeared, "She never like Hiro to begin with. Once, she banned me from ever seeing him again."

Kuukai's green eyes widened, as she smirked, "Guess how that went."

"So tell me about him, or else I'm going to accuse you of having a crush on him," Kuukai joked, receiving a painful jab in his ribs. She glanced up, and thought for a moment, making it look like she was looking for something on the ceiling.

"Well," she began, "He's three years older than me, but I'm better at him at all sports…" Arisa's voice trailed off then became so quiet you could barely hear it, "Except for swimming."

Kuukai leaned closer to her, "What was that, Arisa-chan?" He asked, in a sickingly innocent tone. She growled, "Swimming. I can't swim."

"I still can't here you…_hime-chan_," he grinned.

She glared and crossed her arms, "Die in a fire Souma, I can't swim and I don't ever want to hear a word about it!"

Her bottom lip jutted out in a pout as he laughed nervously, "Don't worry, your secret's safe with me." His arm wrapped around her shoulders and pulled her against him.

Instead of insisting he 'get the hell off her' like he thought she would, she just muttered, "I'm going to kill you if I get sick you know…"

The duo lost track of time as Arisa told Kuukai about Hiro and his love for math, the colour orange and his freaky obsession with girls.

Finally the brunette ran out of things to say about her friend, and their hunger finally caught up with them.

Both their stomachs let loose a loud grumbling, and caused their faces to flush red.

"R-right…you sent me down here to get you food…" Arisa muttered, rubbing the back of her head in embarrassment.

He laughed, "You know, I head ordering pizza in is really good for fevers." She laughed as well and dove for the phone, "You better have cash on you."

As she spoke to the pizza person on the phone, something about cheese, he dug through the drawers of the kitchen, picking up spare bills and change. Finally he had accumulated a pile, enough to pay for the pizza.

While they waited for the pizza to arrive, Arisa checked Kuukai's temperature once more, and happily announced that his temperature has returned to normal.

The doorbell suddenly rang while Arisa was practically shoving a spoon of medicine down Kuukai's throat.

He escaped the girl's wrath and snatched the money they had stacked from the table and ran to the door, pulling it open, panting and flustered.

"Hi," he greeted the other boy, holding the box in his hands. As Kuukai mentally counted the mentally, Arisa suddenly broke the silence by stretching her arms past his head, and taking the pizza from the pizza boy's hands.

"If you don't hurry up and pay, I'm eating without you!" She called from the kitchen.

He rolled his eyes and handed the pizza boy the money, waving him off. As the pizza boy walked down the path, he couldn't help but mutter, "Kids these days…"

-

Kuukai sat himself across the table from Arisa and took a piece of pizza, quickly consuming it. He watched her eat hers, noticing it was being eaten…backwards.

Noticing his stare she shot him a stern look, "What? Never seen anyone eat their pizza backwards before?"

He shook his head, taking another bite. She shrugged and continued eating.

As they ate, any random bystander could notice that they ate faster and faster after each slice, eventually, practically shoving the slices down their throat.

Eventually, one slice was left and they had a glare off for it. Suddenly, the front door burst open, and as Arisa's attention was averted from the final slice, Kuukai swiped it from the box and began eating it.

When Arisa realised what Kuukai did, she ran around the table, and took a bite of the pizza while it was still in his mouth, as their foreheads touched.

Then at the exact moment, Rento, who was the one who returned, walked into the kitchen and found Arisa situated on Kuukai's lap, taking a bite of the pizza from his mouth.

In-direct kissing anyone?

Shut up Rento; I'm narrating.

The older boy froze, at the scene. Not realizing the presence of Rento, Arisa laughed and bit a piece off, leaving Kuukai sitting on the chair, flushed, and a piece of pizza hanging from his teeth.

Chewing contently, she waved at Rento and ran up the stairs.

Rento stared at Kuukai, flushed and frozen in the spot.

"…Are you going to eat that?"

-

The rest of the night followed rather smoothly. Hana had returned from her meeting and Suusui and Unkai came home also. After eating dinner, she replied to Hiro's letter, insisting that she could put the letter in the mailbox that night and have it picked up in the morning.

She's staying inside tonight.

Just as she finished the letter, and Kuukai left the room, her camoflaudge printed cell phone (as you can tell, she loves camo) vibrated on the desk, nearly falling off the desk.

It was an unknown caller, but having nothing better to do, she picked up.

"Moshi moshi?" She greeted the stranger.

"T-Tsukiga-chan…I'm sorry. I really hope you can forg—" The voice said.

Arisa's eyes widened, recognizing the voice, "Kairi-san??"

His voice was clearly startled, realizing he had dialled the wrong number, "Hoshiwa-senpai? A-ah. Sorry for bothering you at this hour. I just…misdialed the number. I'll see you at school tomorrow." And with that he hung up.

Arisa stared at the phone, then shrugged and turned it off, placing it next to Koorei's egg.

'Lazy ass…sleeping all day, Arisa thought, rubbing her eyes.

Finally, without even waiting for Kuukai to re-enter the room, she turned off the lights and leaped into bed. As she laid there, she couldn't help but wonder if she should tell Tsukiga or not…


	10. Crysanthemums and a New Chara

**Hiiiiii~ Here's another chapter for today! Then I can get off my lazy ass and start writing! And it's really weird trying to write a bunch of fics for different fandoms at once. Like 'Seiyo' from SC! And 'Seigaku' from Prince of Tennis are so similar, that I usually forget one or the other. **

**Waterdraon; there's…some action. Sorry if its disappointing though xD;**

**Warnings for: Group therapy, creeper Kairi (I'm aware XD), and of course, contradicting charas~**

**Don't own SC! And all that shiz.**

The Colours of Love: Chapter 9

Of Chrysanthemums and a New Chara

The next day passed by quite quickly. Arisa continued to fail at paying attention to the teacher and was her extra homework. But after her quiet…boring…lame…boring…dull (and did I mention boring?) lunch break, her classmates rushed out the classroom in a stampede.

At that moment, Arisa was happily preparing herself to doze off on her desk after finishing her lunch. The sudden noise freaked her out, and made her fall over on her chair and landing with an explosive crash.

She slowly got up, rubbing her arm, which she had fallen on, "What the hell…?"

After most of the kids had cleared out of the room, Arisa stood up, stretching her arms and yawning when Tsukiga suddenly appeared at the door way.

"Arisa, Why are you still here?" She demanded.

It was strange: Tsukiga wasn't wearing the normal uniform, but a pair navy shorts and a white t-shirt with the Seiyo logo on it.

"Depends on where everyone's going. Does it involve doughnuts?" She asked, laughing.

The girl at the doorway rolled her, but smiled, "Come on stupid, we have PE right now."

As she made her way towards the door, Tsukiga walked off, in the direction of the field. Arisa chased after her, jumping onto the slightly taller girl's shoulders, shocking her.

"Oh, and you really expect me to know where I change?" Arisa asked, grinning.

Tsukiga laughed, then responded, "I thought so," then led her through the halls until they reached a doorway, which led to the female changing rooms. Arisa darted around, searching for her familiar locker number. (I think they have lockers there…) Finally, she found it; in the courner and farthest from the door; just where she liked it.

She pulled the door open, as she heard Tsukiga call to her, "I'm heading out, remember to close your locker."

Arisa shrugged and continued discarding her uniform, reaching into the locker for a similar set of clothes and slipped them over her body. She shut her locker behind her, and sped out of the locker room, while tugging on the short shorts.

Stupid gym uniforms.

Her legs carried her over to the area where her classmates were gathered. She waved at Rima and Tadase, and just passed a glance at Amu.

On the other side of the field, Tsukiga was sitting on the dusty ground, with her legs brought up to her chest. Her long hair was pulled back into a messy pony tail, while her bangs hung over her eyes.

Arisa thought about the strange phone call she had received the night before, and continued to wonder if Tsukiga should know or not.

The brunette was knocked out of her thoughts when the coach blew into the whistle, causing a loud screech to ring through her ears.

"Okay; Star Class VS. Moon Class; classic capture-the-flag. If you get caught, you return back to your side, returning the flag if you got it." The coach announced. She blew the whistle once more, commencing the game.

The boys of Star Class were rather…obnoxious. As they shouted insults and called somewhat, inappropriate names, Arisa took the chance to retrieve the flag. She dashed across the other side of the field, running as quickly as she could, dodging people as she ran.

She tried this several dozen times, until she was tired and panting.

Other boys tried getting the flag as well, while most of the females from her class, hung near the back of the field, guarding the flag.

But finally, when she was just about to reach the Moon Class' flag, somebody's leg just stuck out at the wrong place at the wrong time, and caused her to trip over, do a rough summersault and fall the ground, landing on her back groaning.

Surprisingly enough, groaning in pain was enough for a large crowd to form around you asking, "Is she dead?" "Will she be okay?" and the ever popular, "Let's poke her with a stick!"

While the both teams of Moon and Star class were distracted by Arisa's wipe-out, a certain pinkette scurried past the crowd and snatched the flag from their post, sprinting back to her respective team and giving a joyous leap in victory.

By now, Arisa had regained her senses and sat up, reassuring the crowd that she was perfectly fine. She glanced over at the Moon Class' pole, instantly noticing the missing flag. She turned to her own team was narrowed her eyes dangerously at Amu who was receiving praise for all of _Arisa_'s work.

Arisa stood up and shook the dirt off her legs. She made her way over back to her team, ignoring the reassurances of Tsukiga, who had insisted on helping her up.

Just as she shoved her way in between Tadase and Amu who were sharing a love-love-sparkly-throw-up scene (Don't kill me. I'm neutral people!!!), she heard a small, squeaky voice.

"Useless…useless…"

The voice got louder and louder, then suddenly just as they were about to start up a new game, Tsukiga shouted, "Sensei, bathroom!"

She excused her, blowing the whistle and a new game began.

Arisa was trying her best not to go and simply beat the cow ballerinas out of Amu, when Tsukiga grabbed her by the hand and rushed into the school.

As the two girls ran into the school, Amu, Rima and Tadase shared a knowing glance, then ran in after them, giving useless, and lame excuses.

Tsukiga dragged Arisa behind her until they reached the park Arisa had once escaped to. But this time, there was a small black egg with an X on it, floating in the air.

"Wow…that's…really something," Arisa said, staring at the floating egg. Suddenly they caught its attention and Tsukiga summoned her charas, Akari and Kurai.

"Stand back. I head you showed Hinamori-san up and didn't get a chance to see how to _really_ purify and egg."

Arisa just stared. That was probably the most Tsukiga had ever said to her in…ever.

Akari floated to her master's side, her kimono, flowing out behind her. She nodded, signalling Tsukiga who muttered to herself, "Atashi no kokoro, unlock…!"

She was suddenly engulfed with a dark red light, and when she re-appeared, she was dressed in a knee length kimono with black designs, fishnets covering her legs, and red ninja sandals. There were red ribbons throughout her hair which was tied up in a bun, with a long ribbon.

Tsukiga held out her hands, and suddenly a long, thin (and very shiny) sword with a red hilt appeared in front of her. She grabbed it, and lunged forward, the large ribbon of her kimono flapping behind her.

"Try to keep up," Tsukiga called to Arisa. Arisa reached into the pouch, which carried her eggs, and scooped Koorei's up with one of her hands.

She brought it up to her face, staring intently at it, awaiting Koorei's appearance. Finally, she got fed up with him and shook the egg yelling at him, "Get up lazy ass! We finally get to see some action so chara change with me!!"

The egg cracked open, revealing Koorei.

"Geez, girls are so loud," he sighed, "for the action."

A bright smile illuminated Arisa's face as goggles appeared over her eyes and gloves on her hands.

She got down, in a pre-running position, then with a burst of speed, she dashed after Tsukiga who had already entered the nearby forest.

Arisa dodged trees, and soon reached a clearing where, to her surprise, found Tsukiga blade to blade, with, not the X-egg, but Kairi.

He was transformed with his chara, holding his twin swords, holding up against Tsukiga and her ever growing anger.

Seriously, she's going to have to stop beating this kid up every time she sees him.

Kairi sprung back (smart) and stared at Tsukiga, who was practically seeping with anger. Arisa approached her (no AS smart, but okay) and grabbed her by the arm, "Come on, you can deal with this kid later!" Arisa commanded her, jerking her arm, and pushing her towards the floating X-egg, who decided to hang around to see what would happen. (not smart at all)

Tsukiga sighed then resumed her battle position, and glared at the egg.

The glare itself could scare the egg off, but she wanted to purify it…not kill it.

She charged at it, and then slashed the air, sending a surge of energy fly at the X-egg. Once it hit, the egg froze suddenly, then the X cracked and it resumed it's proper, white exterior with small yellow designs on it.

The newly purified egg flew off into the distance, returning to its rightful owner filled with hopes, dreams and—Okay, let's see what she does to Kairi. That's a crap-load cooler.

Both Tsukiga and Kairi were silent. Arisa, feeling the obvious tension in the surroundings, approached Tsukiga, "Wow! That was really cool Tsu-chan!~ Now…let's go back to the Royal Garden so that—"

"Arisa-chan, go back to the Royal Garden," Tsukiga commanded, not revealing any emotion to the younger girl.

Arisa looked around the clearing nervously, then hardened her expression, "Fine, but if you do anything irrational, you better feel sorry for it later."

She dashed out of the clearing, leaving the duo in a silence.

They both undid their transformations, their charas floating loyally by their side. Kairi was silent, for a long time before he said anything.

"Aoisora-senpai, I-I tried calling you, but…"

She frowned deeply, almost screaming at him "What? You called Amu instead? You got together? You didn't want to see my sorry face again??"

"You broke ohime-sama's heart!" Akari cried, pulling her sword out.

"And now you're going to pay!!" Kurai chimed in, notching an arrow in her bow, aiming it at Kairi, who flinched at their loud voices.

Tsukiga's expression remained unfazed, "You two go back as well."

They stared up at her with saddened faces, "B-but…ohime-sama…"

"If I have any trouble, I'll be able to care for myself. Now go."

They floated off. Kairi sent Musashi off as well, leaving them alone…awkward much.

Tsukiga sat down onto the grass, fiddling with the short blades in front of her. Kairi feeling awkward standing, sat down as well. As she fiddled with the grass, he couldn't help, but stare into her absent minded orange eyes.

Suddenly they stared back at his, "So what did you want?"

He was taken aback for a moment, "Huh?"

Tsukiga rolled her eyes, crossing her legs, "I mean, you probably tried called me or a reason didn't you?" He nodded, "I tried calling you…but accidentally called Arisa-senpai by accident."

She cocked a brow at him, wondering why that was such a big deal.

But her mind jerked back to her original question, causing her expression to suddenly harden.

Noticing her change in expression, Kairi stared at her worriedly.

"What—" He began, only to be cut off the girl opposite of him.

"Why did you do it?"

He changed his expression from worried to confused, "What are you talking about Aoisora-senp—" She shot him a hard glare, and he hesitated, "…Tsukiga-chan."

She deeply sighed, fiddling with the edge of her shorts, a habit she retained when she got nervous or agitated, "Why did you confess to Amu-san even though you know how I feel for you?"

Kairi watched as she tightly balled her hands into fists on her lap. A single tear escaped her eye, as she bit her lip, awaiting his response.

A sigh passed his pale lips, "I did it because—" his hands too, balled into fists, "—because it's what I thought was right."

Tsukiga shot upwards, standing, not daring to make eye contact with him, then sped off into the direction of the Royal Garden.

In her mind, only one word repeated itself over, and over, like a broken record in her mind—

Idiot…

_Idiot…_

_**Idiot…**_

_**SANJOU KAIRI YOU IDIOT!!!!!**_

-

"So," Arisa said in the midst of a bored silence, flipping a pencil through the air, ditching her class, "What are your thoughts on _strawberry-peanut-mint-choco-swirl_ ice cream?

The group groaned, out of pure boredom, hearing generally the same topic recommencing over, and over, and over again; chocolate, mint-chocolate-chip, peanut butter, vanilla, orange sorbet, cookies & cream…and many, many more. It was unnatural for somebody to know so many ice cream flavours.

They sighed, another long silence approaching. Though when the front door of the Royal Garden was slammed open, it sent a shock of surprise throughout the present members, along with Arisa falling off her chair, other Guardians were knocked off of whatever number cloud they were on.

Tsukiga stomped past everyone, clearly ignoring them, her face as expressionless as she's ever seen it.

"Tsukiga-chan!" Arisa cried out, standing in front of her as she collected her papers, stuffing them into her bag, "How'd it—" The older girl shoved past her and exited the garden, "—go?"

The brunette stared at the door, dumb-founded.

"So…hopefully she didn't kill Kairi-san."

Towards the end of the day, as they were packing up, Kairi entered the garden, silently, not making a sound, but that never stopped anyone from noticing him. He too collected his things and made his way towards the glass door.

But he never made it. Arisa grabbed him by the arm and stared at his blue eyes filled with sadness, "Weren't you supposed to tutor me today…or something?"

Luckily he caught what she meant, 'I can help you with Tsukiga you know.'

He took a moment to think it over, then nodded. Arisa smiled brightly, then ran over to the table, and grabbed her papers and bag, and ran back to Kairi.

She paused then looked at Kuukai, "I'll be home a bit late, so make sure nobody worries about me."

She waved to Kuukai, then exited the glass building with Kairi.

"So…are you jealous of that kid or what?" All Kuukai did was roll his eyes at the red-head and give a sharp tug at her bright, long, red hair.

"Ouch!" She yelped.

"Seriously Shinyu-san, I'm not jealous," He told her, picking up his skateboard from the ground.

_I don't think I am at least…_

-

They entered the samurai's house, greeted by the older woman, claiming to be Kairi's _loving_ 'onee-chan.' From the expression on his face, Arisa couldn't help but burst out laughing once they reached his room.

He pulled out some papers and a pen, Musashi floating by his side. His chara sat himself down on the desk and assumed a meditative position.

Koorei sat across from him, staring boredly. "Do you do this all day?" The blue hair chara asked.

Musashi cracked an eye open, and responded with a curt nod, and resumed his position. Koorei sighed and floated up to Arisa, "Hey Ari-kun, can't we do something more…exciting? Like more exciting than studying with these two bozos. Can't we go bungee jumping instead??"

Arisa snickered, "Chillax Koorei. This is important, and plus," she looked at him, and poked him in the head, knocking him over, "You know I only plan to bungee jump when there's a rain storm going on."

The chara couldn't help but laugh, "Fine, fine. Then I'm going to sleep until we leave."

He retreated back to his egg, and shut it, leaving the two students to recommence their work.

"So…about Aoiso—"

"First things first, if you ever want to address her again, you'll stop being so formal with her and just call her 'Tsukiga-chan,' or since I'm so nice, 'Tsukiga-san' will do as well.

He jotted something down messily onto his paper, as Arisa continued.

"As you _should_ know, she doesn't like loud noises, sudden noises, and especially—"

Kairi broke her off, "—sudden, loud noises, I know."

Arisa smiled, then stood up, pacing around the room, "Her favourite colours are—"

"—black, red, purple and blue."

"She loves—"

"The rain, ice cream, manga, plushies, Pocky, her MP3 player, snow, night time, video games—"

Arisa cut him off herself, "What's her favourite video game?"

Kairi didn't even have to hesitate, "The Kingdom Hearts series."

"What's her favourite song?"

"Starry Heavens or Reisha's Lullaby, she can't decide since they're both are so awesome."

For several hours, they went on and on, Kairi listing all of Tsukiga's opinions, and preferences perfectly.

"Seriously, does she know this much about _you_?" Arisa asked, out of breath from asking questions too quickly. Kairi thought, and then nodded, "We used to hang out a lot…"

Arisa watched his expression harden, and his eyes glaze over, as if going into a dream.

"She enjoyed silence, and that's exactly what I gave her. At first, she thought I was really stuck up and a workaholic, but," Arisa cocked a brow at him, "Okay I still am, but not as much as she thought I was."

"So even though she preferred to listen to her MP3 player, or just sit in silence…we talked a lot."

Kairi rambled on and on about his experiences with Tsukiga, finally, he for to the part Arisa cared most about.

"But later on, I guess I started 'liking' her," he admitted. Arisa's eyes widened, _if they both had feelings for each other what went wrong?_

"But…she idolized the King, and there was too much of an age difference between us anyway."

Arisa couldn't help but scoff. "Seriously? Doesn't Amu-san have this thing for some high schooler in his senior year? You and Tsukiga would be perfectly fine. In fact, I'm absolutely positive it'd work out."

A small smile appeared on the younger boy's lips, "I guess…"

Arisa then continued their 'game', "So anyway, Tsukiga's favourite flower is—"

"The summer snowflake," he responded breezily.

Arisa playfully stuck her tongue out at him, then blew a raspberry, "Wrong! That _used_ to be her favourite flower."

Kairi sent her a confused, and startled look, and Arisa told him, "The chrysanthemum; she loves them to death now. Especially the white ones."

He stared at her, his eyes glazing over for a moment, "Kairi-san…? Are you…you know; alive?" He responded with a small nod, then stood up.

"Chrysanthemums?" He asked her, verifying what she had told him.

Arisa nodded, "Chrysanthemums," she echoed.

The faintest of smiles appeared on his face. Arisa couldn't help but smile, but when he pulled a package of papers from his bag, and handed it to her.

"You didn't think you'd get out of working did you?" He asked her, smirking, clearly amused. Arisa's smile instantly disappeared when she realized what the paper was.

_Seiyo Academy: Star Class- 6A [Math 6.4]_

She sent a glare at him, as his smirk just widened, "I hate you so much."

"You know if you don't finish it, there's going to be very dire consequences if it's not completed," he told her, clearly amused by her annoyed expression.

"Die in a fire…Iinichou," She muttered stuffing the papers in her bag.

She had heard the other Guardians call him by that, and since it seemed to annoy the wits out of him, she decided to join in the fun.

He scowled and rolled his eyes. "Iinichou, iinichou, iinichou, iinichouuuuu," she repeated in a sing-song voice as he escorted (forced) her out the door.

"Remember; chrysanthemums!"

Arisa laughed to herself as he slammed the door shut, followed by several angry shouts from his sister.

When Arisa entered through the front door of the Souma household, she was suddenly swarmed by the Souma boys who were all taller than her, towering over her, while bombarding her with questions.

"Kuukai said you were at a boy's house."

"And he said he was younger than you."

"He didn't do anything weird to you did he? I heard younger boys are more perverted."

Arisa's eyes widened, then narrowed at the soccer jersey clad Souma sitting comfortably on the stairs, lazily flipping through a sports magazine.

"What? I was worried about you." Kuukai said, sitting up and looking her in the eyes.

Arisa instinctively rolled hers, "Whatever. Well you should know I can take perfectly good care of myself if some dude ever wants to try anything on me."

Rento broke in, "But Arisa-chan—"

She growled at the suffix applied to her name, "I'm not some sissy-princess-wimp who's easily pushed around by people. Whatever comes my way, I'll deal with them."

She shoved past the brothers crowding her and stepped over Kuukai, up the stairs and entered her room, slamming the door behind her.

Being underestimated was one of the things Arisa despised about…society. Just because she was a girl…because she's not a boy, that was always the reason. And she hated it.

Even though the weather was cool, from the open window appeared a small crystalline egg floated up and through the window, hesitating before lunging forward and landing on the desk gracefully in front of her.

The egg cracked open and a small girl, about the same size as Koorei, popped out and stared at Arisa, with a small scowl on her face.

"Just because you don't like being a girl, it isn't that bad! You should know, what about your dream to figure skate?! D—"

Suddenly, Koorei broke out of his egg and charged over to the new found chara.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing here?? And what are you talking about this 'dream to figure skate'? Arisa-kun wants to be the fastest hockey skater ever! Don't you Arisa?" Koorei shouted at her, waving his arms around frantically.

"Don't be an idiot; she wants to be a figure skater and to be able to reveal her girly side easier, right Arisa-chan?" The chara broke in.

Arisa stared, dumb founded at the two charas glaring at each other, "I…uh…I want both of those things. Isn't that why you two are here to begin with?"

They stopped glaring at each other then turned away from each other, scoffing, "Fine," they both muttered.

The female chara was wearing a long white t-shirt with light blue designs on it, and a blue and white striped long sleeved shirt under it. She had a pair of shorts on, but was barely visible under the long t-shirt. She wore knee length striped socks, similar to her sleeves and a pair of pure white figure skates on her feet.

Her hair was crystal white at the roots, but gradually became light blue closer to the tips. It was held up with a clip, with the light blue ends, hanging over the clip.

"So," Arisa began, "You were the one that chara-changed with me at the rink?"

She smiled brightly, and curtsied, "Korii, the figure skating ice chara, at your service! It's a pleasure to finally meet you Arisa-chan!~"

Even though her girly side was somewhat embarrassing to her, she couldn't help but burst out laughing, leaning back on the chair she was sitting on, and falling back, causing her laughter to escalate even more.

Kuukai entered the room to Arisa in the middle of a laughing fit.

He walked over to her, making sure he doesn't do anything to make her blow up on him. But instead of getting the glare he expected, she smiled brightly, "Hey Kuukai, guess what? I got another chara!"

Her smile caught onto him and caused him to smile back, greeting the new chara, and introducing Daichi.

The rest of the evening went my normally, with Arisa complaining over how much work Kairi had given her, and Unkai crashing into the room, commanding her to shut up.

Once she completed the sheets, give or take a few questions, she went to sleep.

Something else worth mentioning is Kairi stopping by a local flower shop, and purchasing a bouquet of white chrysanthemums.


	11. As A Guardian

**Okay! Waterdragon, I think I've killed enough of your brain cells already, so here's the part BEFORE the action! xDD; **

**And to the rest of you, please enjoy (if you don't…I don't know. Go do something productive with yourself or something xD)**

_**Warnings for: New extra characters, and some action at the end! YAY!**_

**Don't own SC! Aaaand I'm going to sleep now. **

The Colours of Love: Chapter 10

As a Guardian

That morning, Kuukai and Arisa both slept in so late, that they barely had enough time to change, and eat. But when Arisa heard that Hiro's letter had arrived in the mail, she dashed down the stairs wearing just a tank top and the uniform's skirt and grabbed the envelope, dangling from Hana's long fingers as the older woman chatted on the phone.

As she dashed out of the kitchen, Unkai whistled just for the sake of teasing her, and received a carefully aimed shoe to his face.

After they were both fully dressed, they dashed out the door, shouting simultaneously, "We're off!"

Jay-walking streets and cutting through ally ways, they arrived at the school grounds in record time, panting.

Arisa leaned over on Kuukai's shoulder, out of breath from the run.

"You idiot, you know we could've chara-changed right?" She asked, laughing slightly. A grin plastered his face, "I guess, but what fun would that be?"

Arisa mentally agreed, and was about to say more, when the bell suddenly rang.

She straightened herself, and then hastily waved to Kuukai as she ran into the large, castle-like building, "We're meeting in the Royal Guardian again! Don't forget!" Kuukai nodded silently to himself, then ran in the direction of his own school, praying he won't be late.

As Arisa dashed through the halls, she passed by Saaya. She was walking as calmly and as princess-like as ever, and as Arisa ran past her, like a gust of wind, before Saaya could say anything Arisa cried, "Sorry Saaya, I'm going to be late for class, I'll diss you for dissing me later," then continued her prolonged sprint.

She ran up the stairs, her hat threatening to fall off if she ran any faster, so instead of slowing down like how most people would, Arisa isn't like most people and pulled it off her head, stuffing it into her bag, and sprinting even faster.

As she whizzed by the open door of Tsukiga's classroom, she caught a glance of Tsukiga, being crowded by a mob of girls, along with a small bundles of white chrysanthemums, piled on her desk.

The brunette smiled, and spotted Kairi walking down the hall, with a small blush on his face when he took a quick peek in the room. Arisa laughed and approached him, "Nice work Iinichou!"

He scowled at her, but his expression instantly softened when he looked back into the classroom.

His rather explicit daydream was shoddily interrupted by Arisa slapping the math sheets he had given her, into his face.

"Well, I'd hate to get in the way of your swooning, but I've got to get to class!" She laughed as his colour on his cheeks turned an even darker shade of rouge, and ran the final stretch, and crashed into her classroom.

Arisa collapsed onto her seat, and pulled out some papers. Noticing the lack of a teacher, she read on the large chalkboard, "Study Hall." She shrugged, being somewhat relieved that she didn't have to work as hard today. Sleeping in really did a number to her in about ten minutes.

She slouched in her seat, examining the people around her. Typically, there were groups of girls, chatting their vocal chords off, the boys chasing each other around the room and some sensible people actually taking this time to nap or rest.

And that's exactly what she was going to do, but suddenly, she remembered the letter from Hiro. Cursing to herself for nearly forgetting about him, she dug through her bag, dumping the contents out onto the desk.

'_Tsukiga gets flowers on her desk, while I'm stuck with HOMEWORK,'_ Arisa thought bitterly.

Finally a small envelope fluttered out of the main pocket of the bag. She dove for it, causing some of the other papers to fly off her desk.

As her agile fingers ripped the envelope open, a sudden burst of red caught her eye.

"Arisa-chan, there you are! Gosh, this school is huge; I was looking for you everywhere. Did you know that when I was here, it was never this huge, like ever, and you know what, I can't believe all the cool people that graduated, I mean, Kuukai-san graduated after me, but seriously, even all the cool teachers are probably gone as well, I mean Kugimaya-sensei got the boot, but he was the coolest homeroom teacher EVER, and Ashiria-sensei was the funniest PE instructor the world has ever seen or had and—"

Arisa coughed while she was in mid-sentence, silencing the chatterbox, "So…what're you doing here?"

Shinyu's eyes widened, suddenly remembering why she in Arisa's classroom to begin with. She tapped her index finger along her chin, then widened her large, innocent, violet eyes.

"Right! A little birdie told e that you have free period today, so I figured I'd come over and chill."

Arisa fiddled with the envelope in her hands, eagerly waiting for the older girl to leave. Shinyu was nice and everything, in fact, she was quite awesome, but Arisa reaaally wanted to open Hiro's letter.

"Won't you get in trouble?" Arisa asked.

Shinyu just shrugged and shook her bangs out of her eyes, "Nah, Nikaidou and I go waaaay back. He'll probably just tell me to keep quiet, and if it comes down to it," she grinned, "I'm a hell of a runner!"

Arisa couldn't help but laugh, and crossed her legs on the small seat. She fidgeted with the envelope in her hands some more, and it wasn't long until Shinyu's eyes widened when she spotted it. "Ooh la, la what is that Arisa-chan?"

She snatched the envelope from Arisa and tore it open. Arisa's eyes widened, "Hey; give it back!!"

Shinyu couldn't help but giggle, Arisa was just so cute when she was chasing people around the classroom. Since the rest of the class was horsing around, they blended right into the surrounding chaos.

"Danm it Shinyu, give it back!!" Arisa cried, leaping over a chair.

The red-head laughed, and opened the envelope, "Hoshi-kun, Figure skating? Are you feeling okay? Didn't you pledge that figure skating was for the slow? …Maybe that Tokyo air is getting to you."

"Seriously Shinyu, hand it over!"

The older girl continued scanning her eyes over the paper, until she suddenly stopped, causing Arisa to crash into her, and stumble backwards, falling into a conveniently placed chair.

Shinyu was smirking, "So tell me about this 'Hiro-chan' of yours. I never knew you were one for long distance relationships!"

Arisa scowled deeply, evil thoughts emerging in her mind, "Not my boyfriend, just my best friend from back home. Now hand over that letter." Shinyu rolled her eyes, handing the sheet to Arisa, "Whatever you say Arisa-chan, but then again you're right," Arisa noticed a mischievous glint in her amethyst eyes, "You'd make a much cuter couple with Kuukai-san anyway."

The brunette rolled her eyes, and gave the older girl a stern push, and read over the letter, trying to hide the fact that she _might_ have been blushing.

-

_Hoshi-chan,_

_Figure skating? Are you feeling okay? Didn't you pledge that figure skating was for the slow? I think that Tokyo air is starting to get to you. Oh don't worry. I'll only tell people when I need to. Like when you're holding me hostage one day! So don't worry about it. Also, thanks for the encouragement, but this year's competition is even harder, and the people here are tough (not to mention they smell weird.) But there's the girl who sits nest to me and she is HOT. Aaand this is the part where you roll your eyes right? Clean your room? Are you giving me a free ticket to go through your stuff? _

_--Hiro_

-

Arisa folded the paper in half a couple times, then put it back into its envelope and throwing it into her bag. She leaned back on the chair, bringing the two front legs of it into the air, and threatening to tip over at any second.

Sadly for her, that's exactly what happened when a group of boys suddenly walked in front of her desk greeting her, casually.

"Holy--!" She shouted as she fell over.

She sat up and propped the chair upright, then laughed sheepishly at her actions, "Hey guys…what's up?"

At first they just stared at her, then burst out laughing, while Arisa's cheeks turned a light shade of pink.

"Wow, that was embarrassing," she muttered, taking a seat in the chair that had fallen over.

Once their laughing fit was over, one of them rested his hand on her shoulder, leaning onto her, "Man, we were just going to ask you if you wanted to hang out and play some soccer or something after school, but after that crash, we know you're going to be the weird, crazy one," one of the boys announced. He ruffled her bangs, and gave her a playful push, "So how about it?"

The rest of the group smiled, "Yeah, I mean, you're not like those corporate clones giggling their lives away anyway. So I think you'd be pretty cool," another announced.

In the group, there were three boys. The 'leader' was the ever popular Hikaru-san; athletic, gets good grades, and an absolute video game junkie. Well, he was proclaimed as 'handsome' and 'Tadase's rival' but that's only what _normal_ girls though.

To Arisa, he looked vaguely a lot like Hiro, except for the fact that his eyes were a light shade of green, and his hair was hanging in his face a lot more.

The second boy introduced himself as Daisuke, the brainiac. He has sandy brown hair, and bright orange eyes, along with freckles sprinkled along the bridge of his nose. Though he prefers to spend his days in the library, he was quite good at sports anyway.

Finally, the last boy, who stood at the back, remaining silent, was introduced by Daisuke, was Ryu; silent but deadly. He had midnight black hair, and eyes so dark, she could barely tell what colour they actually were.

As Arisa chatted with them (Ryu giving his thoughts and even smiling ever now and again) Shinyu (yes, she's still here) was talking with a group of girls about high school, boys and…well lots of other stuff that Arisa prefers to never talked about.

When she would take a quick glance over at the group, she and at least one of the girls would make eye-contact and they would instantly look away.

Suspicious, Arisa decided to voice her thoughts to her new-found friends, "So what do you think they're talking about over there?" Hikaru snorted, "Arisa-san, you almost sound like a love sick _boy_ when you say that." Daisuke agreed, while Ryu nodded as well.

Arisa rolled her eyes at them, "Whatever, but I still think they're talking about me."

The other males shrugged it off, then recommenced their interrupted conversation on video games.

While they conversed, they had barely noticed Arisa, until she excused herself for a bit. She stood up and wandered into the hallway.

Out in hall, she leaned against a wall with her knees brought up to her chest. Noise radiated from the inside of the classroom, but in her mind, she could hear nothing but her thoughts.

In the hall, the girl's voices were the loudest, and seeing how they were farthest from the door, it was surprising, but not to Arisa. The discrimination she received from her 'female friends' got worse and worse. By spending time with Hiro and his friends all the time, she had received names like 'slut', 'man-eater' and…many others. It was not pretty.

Even though Arisa trusted Shinyu a lot, just her being in the presence of those _other girls_ drove the poor girl mad.

If they were talking about Arisa, it's not like she could hate Shinyu. And if she did, that's basically asking the rest of the Guardians to hate her as well. …Maybe even Kuukai.

At this thought, she banged her head against the wall behind her repeatedly.

"Shut up me! Why must I think so much about the stuff that doesn't matter??" She demanded, trying to stay as quiet as she could, without killing somebody.

Korii, who was sitting patiently in her egg, emerged from it and floated to the front of Arisa's closed eyes. Once the large, chocolate coloured orbs opened, they suddenly widened at the sight of her chara.

"Mou, Arisa-chan! What are you doing?"

A small smile crept onto Arisa's face at just the mere concern of her chara, "You know…sucking at being female."

Korii's brow's shot up, "Well you could've told me that sooner! From one of the boys, to—"

Arisa grabbed her chara, immediately silencing her, "Shush Korii! I never said I didn't want to. Plus, I just made more friends and being a girly girl would just screw it up."

She wriggled out of Arisa's grasp, quickly enough to reply, "But didn't your mom say that you should have more girl friends?" Korii fixed her scarf and looked up at her master, glaring into hers with her own icy-blue eyes. Arisa looked away, rolling her eyes and scoffing, "It doesn't matter what my mom thinks of me anymore. All I want to do is skate without anyone caring about what I do."

Korii's glare softened as she fumbled with her ribbon, "S-sorry, Arisa-chan."

Arisa smiled apologetically at the 3-inch girl sitting on her knee, and scooped her up in her palms, "Don't worry about it. I'm just being a freakazoid again. Let's get back in there to make sure nobody died."

Korri loosened her scarf, and huffed as she watched Arisa re-enter the classroom, then floated in after her.

Arisa joined the Hikaru, Daisuke and Ryu, and began talking about sports. Suddenly Shinyu approached them, and grabbed Arisa by the arm, "Arisa! Don't forget about the—"

But Hikaru interrupted her, "Hey there Shinyu-chan, beautiful as ever I see."

Arisa rolled her eyes, "Shut up Hikaru," and then looked back at Shinyu, "The what?"

Her cheeks tinted pink, not used to receiving such complements, but ignored him, "The Guardian meeting after school; don't forget."

Arisa nodded, but after the red-head walked off and exited the classroom, Arisa turned back to the group, who had shocked expressions on their faces. Arisa stared at them weirdly for a while, until she asked, "What?"

Daisuke gawked at her, "You're with the _Guardians_?" She nodded, not knowing what else to say.

Hikaru crossed his arms over his chest, "Seriously, what transfer student _doesn't _accepted into the Guardians?" Ryu nodded in agreement.

Arisa shrunk back in her chair, maybe it was better to never mention that she's a Guardian ever again. Suddenly, she shot up, slamming her palms on the desk in front of her, "Shit! Doesn't that mean I can't play soccer with you guys after school??"

Ryu shrugged, "I guess so." She saw Hikaru give Daisuke a look, then shrunk back in her seat as Hikaru announced, "Well maybe some other time, how 'bout it Arisa-san?"

She nodded gloomily, then stood up and made her way back to her seat.

_I don't want to be a Guardian…_

-

The rest of the morning flew by quickly, but when the lunch bell rang, instead of rushing for their lunches, everyone exited the building. It was a half day.

Arisa walked in the direction of the Royal Garden, which was past the soccer field, where she spotted Hikaru, Daisuke and Ryu; Ryu in net and Hikaru and Daisuke taking shots at him.

The brunette sighed deeply and pushed the hair in her face to the side. She continued walking, until her head came in contact with a wall; a uniform wearing, green-eyed wall; Kuukai.

"Arisa; yo!" He exclaimed, holding onto her shoulders.

She looked up and smiled weakly, "Awesome, so you didn't ditch me."

He grinned, "And you didn't forget." Arisa shrugged and moved out of his grasp, "Shinyu reminded me, so don't give me all the credit."

They made their way to the Royal Garden together.

Instead of taking the forest route, they decided on actually the paved path for once. As they walked, the students they passed by whispered to each other, not realizing how—_freaking' loud they whisper!_

Arisa sighed, and nudged Kuukai, "Doesn't it suck to not be able to walk down a sidewalk in peace?"

He let out a short laugh and tapped her on the shoulder farthest from himself. She just stared at him, "If you want to race, can't you just challenge me like a man, _princess_?'

Oh yeah, she went there.

She sped ahead, leaving him behind. He groaned, "You're making me run today!"

"Come on lazy-face, don't make me tell all the Guardians about all the weird stuff you say in your sleep!"

A look of horror appeared on his face, "What?! You never told me I talked in my sleep!" Arisa stopped for a moment, and stuck her tongue out at him, "I was saving it for sometime I might've needed it." She continued running.

Kuukai groaned and jogged after her.

When Arisa entered the Royal Garden, soon followed by Kuukai, she saw an unfamiliar face standing by the Guardians along with a certain cat-eared teen, who she knew a little too well.

"Holy shit; you're that dude who randomly tried to rape me in the middle of the day and got me lost, and almost got me hit by a bus—wait, was that before, or after I saw you? Whatever! You still tried raping me in the middle of the day and that's—"

The taller boy stepped over to her and bent down to her eye-leval. Behind him, she watched as Amu, and the other girl fume. She couldn't help but let loose a laugh as she watched their faces turn red, and steam to practically pour out of their ears.

Shinyu on the other hand had stomped out of the area to the back of the Royal Garden, effectively escaping the scene. Though Arisa could see she was obviously blushing, she knew she'd have to keep quiet about it or she might end up randomly hung over a bridge by a thread being threatened to never tell anyone or else she's unleashing Ikuto in kitty-mode on the thread.

…Fun.

Though, when Ikuto's forehead touched with her's, he got the royal treatment.

Actually, his _balls_ got it. Arisa kneed him, and left him in a curled up position at her feet. She looked back at Kuukai, who had taken a step forward and was about to step in.

"Now that wasn't very, ninja-ally-cat of you," Arisa grinned widely. She was so sadistic sometimes.

The girl who was fuming, and now arguing with Amu wore a stylish black dress and has long, blond hair which was tied in two pigtails.

Right next to her; and I mean _right_ next to her was Shinyu, who had rushed back to the scene to make sure Ikuto was okay. But it was kind of creepy how she was mere millimetres from Utau; personal space bubble infiltration, much?

"Wow…I can't believe Hoshina Utau is actually here." Shinyu swooned, staring at the blonde, who was backing away my the inches.

Arisa stared dumbfounded, and stepped around the recovering blue haired high-schooler who groaned in pain.

"Yo, Hoshina-san, I'm new around here, nice to meet you!" Arisa said, extending her hand to shake the other girl's.

Shinyu's jaw dropped open, "Arisa! You can't speak so casually with Hoshina-sama!"

In the background, Kuukai, Tadase, Rima, Nagihiko and Tsukiga sighed, all of them thinking the exact same thing; _not again. _

Arisa stared at Shinyu's generally creepy obsessed face, "So, is there a specific reason you're calling her 'Hoshina-sama'?" Utau rolled her eyes and put her hands in the dress' nearly invisible pockets, and whispered to Arisa, "Don't worry, this happens all the time."

Arisa's question practically made Shinyu's head explode into a million and five pieces, "Hoshina Utau, pop-idol singer, and also singer of the indie band Black Diamond, was born on November 9th, 1994 and is currently 15 years old. She is 165 cm. tall, 66kg and is so AWESOME!!!"

A chara emerged from its egg, attached to belt around Utau's waist. One of them had a short, dark purple bob-cut and devil horns along with a red tank top and miniskirt in the shape of red bats; Iru.

"Hey you crazy lady! Give Utau some space will 'ya?" She shouted at the red-head.

Shinyu scowled at the chara, "So we meet again, Iru."

Suddenly the atmosphere became freakishly tense as Shinyu and Iru glared poisoned covered dagger, maces, swords, lances, spears, knives, axes, arrows, sharp pencils, sporks, and various medieval-styled torture devices at each other.

That's how tense the atmosphere was.

"Well…moving on," Arisa stated, pushing the two of them away from each other, "Is there a reason why Hoshina-san and kitty-chan are here?"

The question wasn't directed to anyone in particular, but was responded with multiple shrugs and looks of confusion. It seems like nobody knew why.

Utau shrugged as well, "I'm on my break so I thought it would be nice of me to visit. And I brought Ikuto along as well," she sat down next to Ikuto, and clung to his arm, "Ne, Ikuto-kun?"

Arisa looked at Amu who was red as a tomato covered in hot sauce and went diving with an army of red M&Ms.

"Chillax Pinky, he's waaaay too old for you anyway," Arisa told her, ruffling her bright pink hair, effectively messing it up from its usual 'do.

Amu panicked and moved to flatten her hair, then shot a glare at Arisa, "But she's his SISTER."

This caused Arisa to choke on the words she was about to say, "Say whaaaaaat?" Her large brown eyes stared at the two, Ikuto trying to pry Utau off him, and Utau clinging to him even harder. "Weirdness."

She pulled the ever-horrible skirt a little lower and approached Kuukai, "Okay, I'm bored, can we go now?"

Suddenly, Utau's second egg burst open, and out came an angel themed chara. When she emerged, she was screaming, "THIS LOOKS LIKE A JOB FOR ERU, THE ANGEL OF LOOOOOOVEEEEEE!!!"

All the Guardians, plus Ikuto and Utau, stared at the chara in silence. Here dramatic pose was held for quite a while before Arisa broke the silence, "Yeah, seriously, this Guardian business is officially REALLY weird."

She walked towards the exit of the Royal Garden, "I'm out of here guys, I'll see you Monday!" When she turned to face the outside, a small black egg with a large, white X on it appeared directly in front of her. It squeaked, "Useless," then hopped on Arisa's head and bounced away.

The Guardians rushed out of the Royal Garden. Ikuto and Utau followed out slowly.

"We have to purify that X-egg!" Amu cried loudly.

Arisa rolled her eyes, "No shit dumbass." Koorei appeared by her shoulder, "Ready Arisa-kun?"

A pair of goggles appeared in her hair along with a pair of white fingerless gloves. Ikuto walked off with Utau clinging to his arm once again, "Yeah, you guys go do that. We've got to go see someone today."

Utau looked up at him with large, innocent eyes, "Ikuto-kun, do you mean _her_?" He nodded, "It'd be smart to check up on her…" With that they walked away, leaving the Guardians.

"Now, let's follow that X-egg!" Amu shouted, punching her fist in the air. Meters ahead, Arisa called back to them, "Seriously, stop screaming the painfully obvious!"

A saddened scowl appeared on Amu's face as she dashed after her. But before that, Nagihiko and Rima excused themselves, saying that they 'had somewhere to be.'

The remaining Guardians, that being Tadase, Tsukiga, Yaya, Kairi and Amu chased after Arisa along with Kuukai and Shinyu.

Arisa sped through the forest, arriving at the soccer field where she found the X-egg floating above three figures who had passed out on the field; Hikaru, Daisuke and Ryu. Arisa snarled at the egg, "Damn it; that is way beyond nice." But as she was about to charge at it again, the X-egg suddenly multiplied.

At first it was just two and Arisa laughed dryly, "Are you serious? I've seen paperclips scarier than that!" At her words, it continued to multiply, from two to four, from four to eight, and on and on, until there were roughly a hundred of the X-eggs.

Finally, the rest of the group entered the field, finding Arisa surrounded by the X-eggs.

Kuukai called out, "Arisa!" She glanced in the direction of his voice, "Oh, hi guys. What's up?"

The eggs were swarming in, around Arisa. Finally Amu shouted, "Hold on Arisa, I'm coming! Atashi no kokoro…UNLOCK!" Pink sparkles, she transforms, she poses, and okay; let's move on with the story.

Amu glared at the hordes of X-eggs until, she turned to the group, "What should we do?!"

Hearing this, Arisa rolled her eyes. Even when in danger, Arisa still manages to think about how stupid that girl can be. A stray X-egg whizzed past her, creating a thin cut on her upper arm. She quickly examined her wound, then looked back at the army, "At least I know you guys aren't illusions I'd waste my time on.

After the first cut, another sped past her legs along with several more that whizzed past her back, causing a tear in her shirt. More of the eggs attacked her legs, until she didn't have enough energy to hold herself up. She fell.

As she shielded her eyes, she saw Koorei next to her.

"What are you doing? You can beat these guys!" He called to her, over the loud hum of the X-egg's speed.

She cringed as another cut her in the shoulder, "Are you insane? There are almost a hundred of them, and you think I could beat them? You MUST be insane!"

Koorei heaved a sigh then responded, "This is going to sound disgustingly cheesy, but if you believe that you can then you can do it. Now move your ass and GO!"

A light blinded Arisa for a moment, as well as the Guardians.

"Atashi no kokoro…un…lock?!"

**Just a little FYI I want to unleash onto the world; the character Ryu is actually the personified version of my pet rabbit XD Silent but deadly…he likes to glare at me while I write :D **

**Please review if you are able to stand my ridiculousness! xD**


	12. Friends of the New and Old Variety

**Ohayo minna!~ I finished reading Prince of Tennis today :D I read the manga a while ago, but never finished it xD **

…

**That has absolutely nothing to do with Shugo Chara! I suck! xD**

**Well please enjoy the chapter~ Maybe then I'll get more reviews…**

**Shugo Chara! Belongs to Peach-Pit along with its characters and settings. I guess it's for the best; I'd put them in a world of cookies and marshmallows and they'd be gingerbread people who were cannibalistic! **

…**Review please!**

**(**_**Waterdragon, sorry if the fight's a disappointment xD)**_

The Colours of Love: Chapter 11

Friends of the New and Old Variety

"Atashi no kokoro…un…lock?!"

The Guardians watched in awe. Even when Amu transforms with the Humpty Lock, they've never felt so much power in a single transformation.

Once the light died down, everything was silent, except for the hum of the X-eggs.

Kuukai's eyes widened wondering, _where is Arisa?_

As if on cue, a bright ball of blue light, shot out from the crowd of X-eggs, into the air. The ball of light left a glowing stream everywhere it went. A bright light surrounded Arisa and Koorei, and knocked some of the X-eggs back.

Once the mixture of light and sparkles faded away, it left Arisa, standing in the air. Well, at least it looked kind of like Arisa.

Her hair was tied back in a pony tail with a pair of white goggles, with blue tinted glass over her bangs. She wore a white t-shirt, with a large blue snowflake on it, and a blue and white striped sweater underneath. And just under the sweater you could spot a pair of white fingerless gloves.

Her legs were covered with a pair of baggy, white, cargo pants with blue trims and a pair of blue and white hockey skates at her feet.

From her place in the air, her arms were outstretched and her expression was in absolute shock.

"Wow…this is…pretty awesome."

Suddenly, the swarm of X-eggs followed her upwards into the air. Not knowing what to do, she sifted her weight over to the side, and just like in skating, she glided. Figuring it out quickly, she smirked and playfully stuck her tongue out at the crowd of X-eggs, approaching her.

Just as they were about to reach her the small crowd below screamed, "Watch out Arisa!" She smirked and pushed off with her skates, gliding away. As the angry swarm sped up, Arisa did as well.

She let them chase her up, down side to side and at some points, upside-down. While most people would be screaming for their mommy, Arisa wasn't like most people, and was laughing and shouting for the entire thing.

Down below, Amu stared up jealously at Arisa. The pinkette noticed the look on Tadase's face when he watched Arisa fly and got instantly jealous.

Amu's hands formed the shape of a heart as she called out, "Negative heart, lock on!" One of the X-eggs that have strayed behind was caught in the pink, heart shaped prison, "Open Heart!" A stream of pink light and sparkles streamed towards the X-egg, purifying it.

Arisa caught sight of Amu's ability and nodded in approval, "Nice trick she's got there," she took a quick glance at the X-eggs behind her, "Do we have any tricks like that Koorei?"

In her mind, she heard his voice, "Minus the pink and girlyness, we ALWAYS have tricks up out sleeves."

Arisa suddenly stopped and turned to face the incoming swarm of X-eggs. Below, all the Guardians had a look of horror on their faces. Kuukai though, was thinking, _what are you going to do now Arisa-chan?_

When the swarm was mere inches from her, she jumped upwards, above all the X-eggs. Tired, the X-eggs turned up and looked at Arisa, not following her. Below her, the X-eggs were gathered in the vague shape of a circle.

A smirk formed on her lips as she pulled the goggles over her eyes.

"Let's dance." She did a quick aerial flip, as a fighter-pilot styled targeting system appearing on the lens of her goggles.

She was a lot higher than she originally was, but she loved it. The clouds were so close, and she felt so…free.

When the targeting system turned red on the X-eggs, her feet were in the air, the blood rushing to her head, but from this position she also had a better positioning from this spot.

Her gloved hands clasped together, forming a gun-shape and was pointed at the X-eggs.

"Ready…" the targeting system beeped once.

"Aim…" twice.

"FIRE!" There was a loud beep, and then suddenly a ball of blue energy formed at Arisa's fingertips.

She shot at the swarm, where a thin ring of blue energy formed around them, effectively trapping them. The shot that was fired from her fingertips was so strong that her arms were flung back from the force, along with the rest of her body.

She did several flips before regaining her balance and watching the bright light from behind her goggles.

On the ground, they all covered their eyes as Amu un-did her transformation. Kuukai who was shielding his eyes with his arm smiled and thought, _crazy girl._

Finally, the bright light faded away, and everyone regained their sight once more. All of the black eggs had turned white and were speeding off to their owners. Arisa smiled, and from her smile, came a laugh. She stood in the air for a little while longer, then skated down to join her friends.

When she stepped onto the ground, the white and blue clothes disappeared, and Arisa's appearance was returned to how it normally would be.

Everyone there had a shocked, scared or speechless expression on their faces, but Arisa was in pure bliss.

"That was SO awesome! Seriously, ever since I saw Amu transform, I just thought transforming and purifying eggs would be nothing, but a girly outfit and a crap-load of sparkles. But that was AMAZING! Did you guys see me? I had a gun, and those goggles rocked! I seriously need to get myself a pair, and those pants I wore were really, really comfortable and—"

As she talked, she paced around. When she turned to the soccer field, she saw Hikaru, Daisuke and Ryu regaining consciousness.

Arisa ran over to them in a panic, "Guys! Are you alright?" Kuukai followed her as well.

Daisuke, pushed himself up with his elbows and rubbed his head, "Woah…that was weird, what happened?"

Kuukai gave Arisa a stern look, telling her not to tell him anything about what happened. Arisa thought for a second then replied, "Uhh…I don't know. When I came here to find you guys, you were on the ground."

Hikaru, who had walked over to them spoke, "Weirdness." Arisa's brows knitted together for a moment, then stared at him, "Wasn't that my word?" She noticed how a tinge of pink appeared in his cheeks, "Yeah, I guess it caught onto me."

Arisa laughed; proud of herself. Ryu walked over as well, brushing the dirt off his white dress shirt.

He shook his hair around, releasing the pebbles entangled in his hair from the fall. Beads of sweat dripped off his face and sparkled when the sunlight hit them.

Arisa couldn't help but stare in awe, "Hey Ryu-san? Do you have a girlfriend?" He glanced at her with curious eyes, and shook his head.

Kuukai choked when she asked this question, and stuffed his hands in his pockets. When a blush appeared on his cheeks, he turned away, trying to look like he wasn't so intensely fascinated about why Arisa was asking the question.

"Why?" Ryu asked her, helping Hikaru and Daisuke to their feet. Arisa responded with a careless shrug, "I don't know, you seem like the kind of dude who might have a girlfriend."

He smiled, and turned away, waving at the crowd. Hikaru and Daisuke followed after him, leaving the Guardians.

For the first time after the fight, Arisa looked down at her clothes and realized that the cuts from the X-eggs had not gone away, and the cuts on her clothes were showing more than she would've liked.

Her cheeks flared red, as she wrapped her arms around where the cuts were biggest.

Shinyu walked up to her, forcefully removing Kuukai's uniform jacket and handing it to Arisa, then turned to the Guardians, "Okay, nothing to see here."

Arisa blushed and pulled the jacket over her dress shirt. The sleeves were too long for her arms and it ended almost at her knees. And with her exhaustion finally catching up with her, Arisa yawned loudly and stretched. After the yawn, she slouched down, her eyelids suddenly feeling a lot heavier.

The remaining Guardians walked back to the Royal Garden, with Arisa practically sleepwalking, leaning against Tsukiga who was holding her by the arm, preventing her friend from falling over, onto her face.

When they arrived at the Royal Garden, Arisa collapsed into the chair next to Kuukai, leaning onto his shoulder.

Kuukai glared at Shinyu who was rummaging through her bag, "Seriously, take a picture and I'll wake her up telling her it was you."

Shinyu sighed, admitting her defeat. She pulled her bag over her shoulder and waved at the Guardians, "Adios everyone!" And with that she exited the Royal Garden.

Arisa shifted, and clung to Kuukai's arm, rubbing her cheek against the smooth material of his shirt. He reached across the table, trying his best not to move and awaken the sleeping girl. He took his and Arisa's briefcases and hung them over his shoulders.

He crouched down, and got Arisa to lean onto him. He picked her up with ease and carried her out the Royal Garden waving to the remaining people in the building.

Since it was a half day, the sun was shining bright, but Arisa's baseball hat kept the sun out of her eyes and kept her in sleep-mode.

He unlocked the front door of his house, and removed his shoes quietly. From the dining room, he heard voices. One of them were his mom's but the other was familiar, but he just couldn't place it. Whatever, he has to put Arisa in bed first.

After making his way to their room, he laid her down on the bed. He removed her shoes, and set her books on the desk.

He changed out of his uniform, into a pair of sweatpants and a baggy t-shirt. Since she was asleep, it was perfectly fine for him to change in the room; one would think.

Kuukai made his way down the stairs, entering the kitchen. He opened the fridge and glanced in, but from the dining room, he heard the sound of a jazzy piano piece. He shot up, his neon green eyes, opening wide. "It can't be." He shut the refrigerator door and ran into the living room, where the music was coming from.

On the couches were his mom on the single couch, but on the one across from her, was a younger woman with sandy brown hair, tied up messily in a bun.

Kuukai gaped at his childhood friend, "…Sion?"

-

Ikuto and Utau walked up the driveway of an old looking house. Ikuto kept his hands in his pockets, while Utau walked obediently behind him. He rang the door bell once. His sensitive ears picked up rushed footsteps, and sub-consciously straightened himself.

When the door opened, it revealed an older woman with dark black hair with red highlights, holding a large cooking spoon in one hand and a blue dish rag in the other.

She looked Ikuto over once then asked, "What can I do for you two?"

Ikuto cleared his throat, "Is Suzuki Aika home?"

The woman's eyes widened as she closed the door slightly, "You're not from that wretched company are you?" she asked in a low voice. They both shook their heads. She looked past them, then to their sides, then ushered them both in.

The front hall had a worn, wood-panelled floor, covered in scratches and shoes. By the door was a hall that leads to the laundry machines and a bathroom. The stairs were to your right and there was another hall next to the stairs that lead to both the kitchen and sitting room, along with a worn door that lead to the basement.

The woman introduced herself as Tamura Suzuki; Aika's mother. She explained how some men wearing suits would sometimes come to their house and how they were after Aika. Utau sympathized with her.

After a short conversation, Tamura led them both up the stairs and took a left. They faced a simple white washed door-way. At first Ikuto hesitated, then suddenly there was a blood curling scream coming from the room. His hand raced for the handle and pushed it open.

"Aika--!"

She was sitting at a desk, covered in papers, along with papers covering the ground around her. On each paper were several rough sketches. There was an electronic piano at the end of her desk, and even that was covered in paper.

There was also a small end-table covered in books of all sorts; novels, dictionaries, atlases, picture books, music books, manga, and many others. This surface was also covered in paper.

The walls of her room were blue, her sheets were blue, her pillows were blue, her lamp was blue, and from her slightly open, and overflowing closet, a lot of her clothes were blue.

Next to her was a young girl, no older than 8, who was standing beside her, shaking her head stubbornly.

Music was playing from the (blue) radio on her desk, while paper whirled around the desk.

In the midst of all this chaos was a young teenaged girl with aquamarine hair, down except for a small ponytail at the right side of her head, tied with a small, yellow scrunchie, sketching like mad at her desk, over several other papers. As she worked, she spoke (shouted) at her younger sister.

"Keiko, go away! I'm busy, I have a project due in a few days and I never even started! Plus, I'm planning to finish that drawing today, along with that manga. Oh no! I forgot! I have to do that other drawing today as well!"

The younger girl shrugged, "Whatever nee-chan, I was just going to tell you that we have _Cinnabons_ downstairs."

Aika's actions stopped immediately, "SERIOUSLY?! THAT IS AWESOME! MAKE WAY! COMING THROUGH! I WANT MY CINNAB—"

Her mother coughed suddenly, "Aika! You have guests."

Her eyes widened, as she looked around her room in a state of panic, "Get out, get out! It's so messy, why didn't you tell me earlier? I would've stopped you know?" She shoved them out of her room, then got to work, shoving papers into her desk and shutting her closet successfully.

When she emerged, she smiled sweetly at the two (her mom went back downstairs), "Hi, what can I do for you?" But when she actually realized who they were, a bright smile erupted on her face, "Ikuto-kun, Utau-san! How are you doing?"

Utau smiled at the girl, "How's the new house?"

She smiled, "It's old, scary, makes weird noises at night, the basement has a lot of scary bugs, but besides all that, I love it!"

She looked over at Ikuto, who's face became solemn, "I heard they found you already." Aika's cheerful expression disappeared when she responded, "Yeah…but I'm not going to let them get to me! I'm starting school tomorrow so, Easter's goons are going to be the least of my worries."

Yoru emerged from behind Ikuto's shoulder, "Nya, so how have the charas been, nya?"

Aika glanced sheepishly at the door, and the crashing sounds coming from behind it, "Why don't you see for yourselves?"

She pushed the door open, revealing her two charas, one male, with sloppy aqua hair, with a long sleeping cap on his head. He wore a set of dark blue polka dotted PJs and a pair of fuzzy blue slippers.

The other one was female with long, dark blue hair, tied in long, neatly braided pigtails, and wore a graduation cap and gown, and held one of those pointing sticks teachers hit people with.

Each of them had a pen or pencil in their hands and were charging at each other angrily.

As they watched the battle happening, Utau muttered, "Same as always," but giggled.

Aika stepped foreword, grabbing them before they could pierce each other with Aika's school supplies.

She laughed and sent them back to their eggs. She sat down on her bed, Utau sitting on the rolling chair and Ikuto sat on the floor, leaning against her closet.

They discussed what was going on in their lives, Ikuto talking a lot more than he normally would. When he still was working for Easter, he saw Aika quite often and sometimes spoke with her. He enjoyed talking to her…most of the time.

Aika too, was an ex-worker for Easter. She would play the piano at recitals, and extract X-eggs searching for the Embryo.

But eventually, the stress of performing for so many people, so many times got to her, and she quit and ran away from Easter. Her and her family moves often, since Easter keeps tracking her down.

Aika laughed, "Even though they think I live her, my mom is one heck of an actress, and made them think that a crazy lady who was in the middle of feeding her pet ostrich lives here!"

Utau let loose a laugh, while Ikuto just smiled.

The room was silent for a while except for the radio, and pages rustling against each other as Ikuto flipped through some of her books.

Suddenly, Utau's expensive looking watched beeped, causing her to glance at it, panicked. She informed them about how she had to get back to Sanjou-san. Aika nodded and showed them down the stairs, and waved them good-bye as they made their way down the path way.

Before Ikuto was out of ear shot he asked her, "So what school are you going to?"

She jumped up, and clapped her hands excitedly, trying to remember where she was going. She paused, then proudly announced, "The big castle-like school downtown!"

Ikuto smirked at her response, "Seiyu Academy?"

Aika laughed nervously, "Yeah, that's it." She gazed up at the clear blue sky, "Seiyu Academy…" Sadly, her daydream was short-lived when her mom yelled at her to come inside to do the monstrous pile of dishes in the sink.

She groaned, "I'm coming!"

-

Sion smiled brightly when she noticed Kuukai enter the room, and since then, they were chatting about things that were going on. She ruffled his hair playfully as he sat down next to her.

And about an hour later, the house got another surprise visitor; Souma Kaidou, Kuukai's eldest brother.

He entered the house dragging a suitcase behind him and shouting, "I'M HOME!"

Both Kuukai and Sion approached the voice curious. Rento, Unkai and Suusui walked in from the kitchen as well, quickly followed by Hana.

"Kai-kun! You should've called. Then I could've made something nice! Here, I'll take your coat, go un-pack. Don't worry, your brothers stayed out of your room and Sion's over—"

All of the siblings noticed the hint of colour appearing in his cheeks when he asked, "S-Sion's here?"

Right on cue, the pianist waltzed into the hall where everyone else was. A bright smile emerged on her face, "Kaidou-kun, welcome home!" She jumped onto his, reaching around his neck for a hug. He was tall, like really, really tall, and Sion brought him back down with her once gravity did its thing.

A light giggle bubbled up her throat. When she looked at his face, it was so red it looked like his head was going to explode.

Sion laughed once more, and ruffled the older boy's hair, staring into his bright green eyes.

The rest of the crowd remained silent, until Unkai and Rento nodded at each other, taking Sion by her two arms and leading her in the direction of the living room away from Kaido.

The two younger siblings babbled to Sion about how boring it was without her at the restaurant.

In the hall, Kaidou was left, standing crouched over and staring at where Sion used to be. Suusui tsked at his older brother, "Not much of a lady's man, are you Kaidou?"

The older boy straightened up and glared at the glasses wearing Souma, "Like you would know Suusui."

A small smirk appeared on his thin lips as he responded, "Well, Kuukai seems to be advancing much faster than you and Sion." Suusui followed his two younger brothers into the living room. Kaidou looked at Kuukai who was sitting with a look of pure innocence on his face.

Kuukai inched out of the hall, and followed the crowd of people while muttering to Kaidou, "I have no idea what he's talking about."

With the family, plus Sion back together, they spoke non-stop for several hours, until Arisa finally woke up.

The loudness of Kuukai and Sion's voices woke her up, and when she sat up in bed, she glanced at the digital clock, '9:34 PM." She sighed out loud, and stood up on her bed and stretched. She removed Kuukai's jacket and tossed it onto his bed. She worked at the top buttons of her dress shirt and un-buttoned them.

She hopped off the bed, landing on the floor with a thump. Arisa glanced at the mirror for a second before, tugging at her bangs, her own way of commanding them to fix them.

Arisa sighed once more, and shrugged any thoughts of her hair, off the cliff…in her brain. There is not cliff in the room.

Her feet dragged against the wooden floor of the hallway as she held onto the wall and railing for support, sure she would collapse at any given moment. She stepped down the stairs slowly, yawning.

Once she made it to the bottom, she looked to her left, the direction of where the noise was coming from and followed it, flexing her jaw, still tired.

When she walked in, everybody in the room had stopped talking for about a minute. That was some minute.

"Good…morning?" Arisa said, unsurely. She took note of the two new faces in the room; an older male with striking green eyes, probably Kuukai's oldest brother. His arm was around a petit girl about the same age as him, if not younger. She had sandy, brown hair and purple-brown eyes.

Sion gave Kuukai a playful grin, then hugged him tightly, "Aw Kuukai-kun, it's so great that you finally have a girlfriend! When I said you were going to be a good man when you grew up, I never expected it to happen so quickly."

Kaidou glared at his youngest brother, who was red in the face at this point, "You're going to pay for lying to me, brat."

Arisa who was standing by one of the couches, chocked when she heard what the woman had said. Colour raised into her cheeks as she scowled, "Boyfriend; as if." Arisa cracked her knuckles out of habit, and sat down next to Rento, and across from Kuukai.

Just then Hana walked into the room, carrying a platter covered with cookies of all sorts. Arisa and Kuukai cheered and dove for the platter once it hit the table.

"I bet I could hold more cookies in my mouth than you," Arisa joked at Kuukai, playfully kicking him, under the coffee table.

He smirked, "Bring it on."

But sadly, before they could begin, Hana called from the kitchen, "Can one of you go and pick up some things from the store?" All the siblings looked from one another, glaring.

"I have to do homework!" Unkai called rushing to the stairs.

"I…have to help Unkai with his homework!" Suusui called.

"I have to clean my room!" Rento said.

Kaidou looked at Kuukai who was trying to think of an excuse, suddenly Kaidou said, "I have…something I have to do." But Sion interrupted him, taking him by the hand, causing him to blush bright red, "_We_ have something to do."

Kuukai's shoulders slouched, as Sion dragged Kaidou out the door to places unknown.

Hana looked into the living room. The remaining one always has to go.

She smiled, "It's alright Kuukai-kun," she began. He perked up, beaming, "I don't have to go?" Hana snorted, laughing, "Of course you still have to go. I was just going to point out that Arisa-chan can come with you as well!"

His eyes darted over to Arisa, who was sitting on the couch, slouching. She shrugged and sat up, "Okay, I guess it'll give me something to do anyway."

She stood up and jogged back to the front hall and pulled her sweater from the closet. Hana smiled at Kuukai, "Have fun!~"

He rolled his eyes and took the list, held to the fridge by a magnet. When he entered the front hall, he found Arisa, lying on the ground, grunting as she pulled her shoe on with limited success. A small laugh burst out of his mouth, acquiring her attention.

She smiled as well, "Shut up; these are weird shoes."

After Kuukai pulled a sweater from the closet, the folded the list with one of his hands and opened the door with his other.

"We're off!" Arisa shouted into the house to no one particular. When she didn't get a response, she shrugged and shut the door behind her.

Kuukai was waiting for her on the sidewalk. Arisa jogged up to him, zipping up her sweater and stuffing her hands in her pockets. Fall was settling in, and as the temperature dropped, Arisa piled more and more sweaters onto her body. Even though she likes the cold much better than the heat, being freezing cold is not fun at all.

They walked side by side on the street lamp lit sidewalk, the soles of their shoes scraping against the rough pavement beneath their feet.

Silence enveloped the two as they walked, Arisa then looked up towards the sky once they cleared out of the streetlamps. When she would normally see a velvet sheet of black, dotted with so many stars, she (or Hiro) could never count, here; there was nothing but a soft orange-yellow glow of all the Tokyo lights.

She audibly sighed, acquiring Kuukai's attention. He nudged her, "What's up?"

Arisa smiled sadly, still gazing up at the sky, "Where are all the stars?" Kuukai looked up as well, "They're there, its just that you can't see them."

Arisa looked ahead of her once again, as did Kuukai. And once again, they fell into silence.

Neither of them said a word until they entered the store and picked up all the items Hana had requested them. After they found all the items required, Kuukai paid with the money he had received, also paying for a pack of sour keys.

They left the store quietly, Kuukai offering Arisa one of the tangy candies. She took one happily, and put it in her mouth.

When they were nearly at Kuukai's street, he took her by the arm and led her to a nearby playground.

Arisa followed him, mentally question where he was taking her.

He led her to a set of monkey bars that arched above a sand pit. He set down the bags in the sand, while Arisa did so as well.

His large hands gripped the blue-painted, metal bars, and swung himself until he sat comfortably on the bars. Arisa did the same and sat next to him.

For a little white they were both quiet. Finally Arisa asked, "Is there something you want to tell me, or something?"

His green eyes stared at her, almost glowing, "Actually, I have the feeling that you have something you want to tell me." Arisa suddenly blushed, and turned away. She stammered with her words until she coughed and cleared her head.

_It's not like it's that, DUH he doesn't like me like that. Stop being an idiot. Just think of something that you wanted to say earlier…_

She looked at him and smiled sadly, the same smile when she mentioned the stars.

"You know why Hoshiko is called Hoshiko?" Kuukai looked confused for a moment then shook his head, "No, not really."

Arisa couldn't help but beam, "It's because out of the entire part of northern Japan, it's the best place to see the stars for the longest part of the year." She beamed, that was one of her favourite things about her home.

She continued on, "And back home, we; that's Hiro and I, we'd have something just like this," she hit the metal bars of the monkey bars with her hands, "And we'd stay up all night on New Years and watch the stars."

A serene smile appeared on Kuukai's face, "That sounds awesome…"

She beamed at him, "It is."

Arisa leaned back, steadying herself with her hands. She exhaled, and watched a small puff of air emerge from her mouth. She leaned back forward and put her hands back into her pockets.

"We should go home now, shouldn't we?" Kuukai asked, noticing her slight shivering. Arisa nodded eagerly and smiled weakly, "Yeah."

They ran back to the house, and crashed through the door, gratefully welcoming the warmth of the house to their bodies. Arisa took both hers and his jacket and hung them in the closet, while Kuukai delivered the groceries to the kitchen.

Arisa bolted up the stairs with her remaining energy and grabbed her pyjamas from her bed and ran into the bathroom to shower. Once she finished, about twenty minutes later, she walked down the stairs, tying her hair in a messy ponytail.

She heard Hana's voice announce to everybody who was settled around the television, "Sion-chan is going to be staying for the night so be nice to her." They all muttered agreements, their attention locked onto the glowing box in front of them.

It was the final period of a soccer game they were watching. There were mere seconds left when Hana added to her statement, "And she'll be staying in Kaidou's room, so don't bother them too much."

The four younger siblings turned and stared at their mother in shock, taking their attention from the game for the most crucial part of the game. The opposing team scored and Tokyo had just lost.

They all groaned in frustration, "MOM! HOW COULD YOU? I BET IF WE WERE WATCHING WE WOULD'VE STAYED TIED!"

As they shouted, Kaidou sat with his arm around Sion's waist as she laughed nervously.

Hana continued with a straight face, "So I guess that means we have no objections for Sion staying with Kai-kun?"

Arisa walked into the room, laughing at the siblings, "Chill guys; there's something called instant replay. She took the remote and turned the volume up as they announced the shoot off, and played replays of the goal, just as Arisa said.

Unkai and Rento hugged her tightly, "You see mom? She would be the ideal sister!"

Hana just rolled her eyes, smiling, "If she could listen to me unlike the rest of you, then that would be good." Hana walked into the kitchen and flipped through a magazine.

After watching the kick-off (Tokyo wins!) they all retired to their rooms, some more excited than others (coughKaidouandSion). After bidding Kuukai good night, and crawling under her covers, Arisa fell asleep.

Kuukai on the other hand, stayed up, and sat by his window staring at the sky.

After the story Arisa had told him, he couldn't help but wonder how it would feel to see a million stars, within your own reach.


	13. And Aika is her NameO

**Shyt, I never uploaded chapters 12 or 13? O.o"" Well that just goes to show what summer can do to people's minds :D Especially mymind…If you mix in Prince of Tennis, smut, and the trauma of losing my hat, then OMG. **

**Well, then enjoy this chapter xD The next one will be posted shortly nya!**

_**I do not own Shugo Chara! If I did, I'd forgot to release manga volumes ;D**_

The Colours of Love: Chapter 12

And Aika is her name-o

Staying up so late was not a good thing for the youngest Souma. The next morning he refused to get out of bed, until Arisa, teamed up with Rento, Unkai and Suusui, dragged him by the sheets and out of his bed.

He landed on the floor with a thump and groaned. "Five more minutes…"

Unkai rolled his eyes, "Come on Kuukai, pancakes!"

"I…have your soccer ball hostage!" Rento shouted by his face. But he slept on.

"Arisa's wearing a maid costume," Suusui stated, crossing his arms, awaiting his reaction. Kuukai cracked an eye open, and looked at Arisa who was red as a volcano who was about to erupt.

The fact that he opened his eyes hung with his immature older brothers for the whole morning, tormenting the two.

They sighed of relief when they finally exited the house, leaving the rowdy siblings behind. Kuukai looked at Arisa and laughed sheepishly, "Sorry…?"

Arisa glared at him and scowled, punching him on the arm, "If I were a normal girl, I'd slap you. If I were a normal guy, I'd beat you up. Luckily for you, I'm far from normal, and you should consider yourself very, _very_ lucky."

They walked calmly to school. Even though Kuukai had slept in, they were still early. Seriously, it was a freakin' miracle.

Arisa arrived and watched Kuukai run off into the direction of his school. She stepped past the massive crowds of students who occupied practically every inch of the school's front area. When Arisa managed to reach the door, she was out of breath.

Pulling the door open with all her might, she stepped in, only to be greeted by yet another crowd of people.

She groaned at shouted as she shoved her way through the can of sardines she dares call her school. Even getting up the stairs was hard. There were people freaking EVERYWHERE.

Once in the classroom, she collapsed into her chair. Arisa could run around the entire school three times, climb trees non-stop for three hours and sprint to and from school multiple times, but when it comes to shoving her way through crowds, she wasn't that great.

After pulling out papers and a pen, she glanced at the clock. Why was she so early for everything today?

As she sat, her head on her desk, she over heard some girls chatting about a new student. According to…whoever they were, she had perfect, flowing blue hair, the colour of a perfect night sky, and eyes like golden treasures one would find at the bottom of the ocean.

Arisa yawned boredly, tired of how many rumours people could spread in a day. But she should keep quiet, knowing these rumor-hyeenas, if she told them to 'STFU' they'd defiantly start a nasty rumour about her.

She glanced to her right. A new desk had been placed there. In its seat was a girl with combed midnight-blue hair. It was slightly wavy at the ends and part of it was held up at the side of her head with a yellow scrunchie.

Her eyes were golden, and stared, concentrated on the paper in front of her.

Arisa strained to remember what the gossiping girls had said_, 'perfect night sky hair…golden eyes…oh.'_

She straightened herself up, and turned to the girl next to her. Arisa tapped her on the shoulder, and was expecting nothing more than a simple sideways glance and possibly a smile. But what she got was something more…hyper-active.

The girl had bolted upward in her seat and screamed, fumbling with her pencil. Everybody in the room turned to look at the source of the noise. The new girl shrunk lower into her chair, trying to hide herself from the class' wandering eyes.

Arisa, who had jumped back at the sudden noise inched forwards, back to her. She held out her hand and smiled sheepishly, "Hey there. I'm Hoshiwa Arisa, since we sit next to each other; I thought it'd be cool of me to introduce myself."

The other girl smiled shyly and laughed nervously, "I'm Suzuki Aika. Sorry about freaking you out like that."

Arisa laughed boyishly, "Don't worry about it. I'll just make sure not to approach you suddenly next time."

Aika smiled, pushing her bangs from her eyes. Her gold eyes darted down to the paper, where there was a large, dark scribble over the sketch. She had probably made it when she flipped out.

"Eh…if it's not too much to ask, can I borrow your eraser?" She held hers up, a small purple blob only about a few centimetres long, and about an inch wide. Arisa's eyes widened, and rummaged through her bag, "Sure…just let me find it."

Arisa pulled out more papers, when finally; her hand emerged with a green pencil case. She tossed her bag back down onto the ground, and pulled an eraser out of it and handed it to Aika.

She thanked the other girl and got back to work, staying silent as Arisa watched. She eventually got bored, was actually excited once the bell rang.

Nikaidou walked into the room, carrying a mountain of books as usual. And dropping them and collapsing; as usual.

As the class ceremonially burst into laughter, Arisa couldn't help but wonder how much this guy was even being paid… Arisa looked at Aika, who was holding back laughter.

After Nikaidou finished taking role-call, he announced to the class, "Today we have a new student!" The classroom exploded in excited whispers. The aqua haired girl, shrunk into her seat. Nikaidou called her up, "Suzuki Aika-san, please come to the front and introduce yourself."

All of the student's heads turned to the sound of a chair scraping against the floor as the new student walked up. She hair swished behind her as she walked, and she sported a shy smile on her face.

She stood at the front of the classroom with her hands clasped together in front of her shyly.

Nikaidou sat down at his desk, "Go ahead Suzuki-san."

Aika looked nervously at the sea of people staring at her, waiting in anticipation.

She cleared her throat and introduced herself, "Hi…I'm Suzuki Aika, I like to draw, play the piano and listening to music. I'm not very good at sports, but they're fun most of the time…I hope I can become friends with all of you."

The males of the class applauded loudly with wide grins on their face. As Aika made her way down the aisle back to her seat, she received stares and glares from the students. When she sat down, Arisa held up her hand for a high-five. Aika laughed quietly and exchanged the gesture.

As Nikaidou stood up and pulled a math book from his desk, he called out, "Hoshiwa-san, please aid Suzuki-san in organizing her books when you're free." Arisa nodded and smiled at Aika. "You got it sensei." With that said, the math lesson began.

About a quarter way through the speech on equations, multiplication, percentage, fractions, decimals, and variables, Arisa and Aika both groaned in sync.

"I hate school," Arisa groaned.

"I hate math," Aika moaned.

They sat up and stared at each other with amazement, then burst in stifled laughter. After being silenced by Nikaidou, they continued to laugh quietly waiting for the period to pass by faster.

Finally, Arisa's second most favourite part of the day; lunch arrived. She took a bite out of her meal and turned her chair to Aika, and crossed her legs.

"So Aika-san, how do you like it here at Seiyo Academy?" She asked friendlily.

Aika shrugged and thought for a moment, "It's pretty cool I guess."

Arisa smiled, satisfied. Just before she could say anything else she was surrounded by Hikaru, Daisuke and Ryu, blocking Aika out.

"Her Arisa-san! We're going to be playing soccer after school again since the soccer team's practice was cancelled. Ryu's going to be in net, so are you up for it?" Daisuke asked eagerly.

Hikaru smacked his friend upside the head, "Take a chill pill dude, Arisa might be busy with Guardian stuff."

Ryu stuffed his hands in his pockets, and waited for Arisa's response.

Arisa pushed the three of them to the side and explained to them, "Sorry guys, I'm busy again."

"Why?!" Daisuke exclaimed, falling to his knees dramatically.

Arisa rolled her eyes, laughing, "I'm helping Aika-san out after school," she explained as she pointed at the girl sitting next to her. The three boys turned to look at her, staring. Arisa snickered, "Say 'hi', idiots."

Hikaru waved dumbly, Daisuke muttered a quiet, "Hi…" and Ryu's greeting was the calmest (and normalest) of all three.

"Hey," he said. His deep voice rumbled in his chest and caused colour to rise to Aika's cheeks.

"I—uh, right—hi…" she stammered, tripping over, and falling face first into her own words. A small smile crept onto the boy's face, he continued, "I'm Ryu. It's nice to meet you Aika-san."

Her name flowed off his tongue with ease, giving Aika chills. She laughed nervously and replied, "Nice to meet you…Ryu-san."

Suddenly there was a long silence within the group until Arisa broke it by coughing. "Well then, sorry I can't hang out with you guys today, maybe Monday." Daisuke sulked and nodded. He was led away by Hikaru and Ryu. Ryu waved to Aika, and smiled.

When they walked away, Aika turned to Arisa eagerly, "Next time you go and hang out with them, can I come along?" Arisa stared at the other girl strangely and took another bite of her lunch. "Sure," she replied with a full mouth.

Suddenly, Arisa heard a small voice coming from behind Aika, followed by another; deeper and much more sleepier.

"What kind of lady are you, eating with your mouth open! You bring shame to your own gender!" The female voice shouted.

"Hataraka, chill. As long as the girl eats, she won't die and it'll all be cool."

"Well if she is going to eat, she may as well make herself look good! And what kind of lady sits with her legs cross legged while wearing a skirt?" She demanded.

Arisa glared at the charawho emerged from behind Aika, "Yo, it's not like I even want to wear this stupid thing!" Koorei appeared from his egg, "You tell her Arisa!"

The chara, Hataraka had long brown hair with streaks of red, orange and yellow, tied in long, braided pigtails. She wore a black graduation hat with a sun at the end of its string. She also wore a yellow button shirt with a red tie and an orange ribbon tied around her waist.

She also wore a red skirt, but was partly covered with a yellow, red-frilled apron and white stockings underneath. On her feet, she wore simple, black dress shoes.

The second chara, named Ayumu yawned and shrugged, floating back to his egg for more sleep. He had black hair with blue streaks in them. Over his messy bed-head, he wore a long, blue sleeping cap covered in purple moons and a single yellow moon handing off the end. He was dressed in pyjamas of the same pattern as his hat and wore a pair of fuzzy blue slippers on his feet.

Aika grinned like mad for the rest of the day. Even when they had double math homework, she was so chipper; Arisa was exhausted from just feeling her aura for the whole day.

When the last bell rang, Arisa groaned in frustration. Aika stood up. Arisa's head was set on her desk, exhausted from school.

She didn't even bother to listen to what Aika had said when she approached her. All Arisa heard were a babble of her excited voice, considerably higher than her own.

A question; Arisa lazily nodded her head, having no idea what was going on. She heard Aika's footsteps run in the direction of the doorway. Wait—wasn't she supposed to her with her right now? Arisa sat up and quickly gathered her things. She followed Aika out into the hallway and found her standing by Ryu.

Arisa couldn't help herself and rolled her eyes and puffing her cheeks in an annoyed manner. She was suddenly tapped on the shoulder. Arisa whiled around, and stared into Hikaru's eyes.

He shared a look of sympathy with her, and sat on the floor along the wall. Daisuke walked up to them as well. He had been waiting in the field for their arrival. Before he could ask why they were late, Hikaru and Arisa pointed at Ryu and Aika.

Daisuke slouched his shoulders and sat down with the two.

The wait lasted for nearly and hour, until finally, Aika and Ryu walked over to them, "Okay Arisa-chan, time to go!~"

Arisa rolled her eyes, "Don't call me that," and stood up, waving the group good bye.

The two girls walked down the hall, towards the library where the schools keeps the textbooks and materials for certain classes.

As Aika constantly sighed dreamily about Ryu, they passed Saaya. They glared at each other as they walked past each other.

In the library, Aika was quiet, but still ranting in hushed whispers as they walked up to the main librarian's desk. Arisa smiled, but rolled her eyes and hit the girl on her arm signalling for her to stop talking.

Arisa leaned against the counter and smiled at the current helper for the hour. Arisa recognized the girl well; she looked exactly what people would think of her. She wore large glasses and had long lavender hair and spent all of her free time in the library.

"Good afternoon Hoshiwa-san," she greeted.

Arisa couldn't help but laugh, "No need to be so formal Shina-san." Arisa grabbed Aika by the arm and pulled her into sight of the librarian.

"I'm here to collect the books for the new student, Suzuki Aika," Arisa announced. Shina jumped then rolled the chair she was sitting on to a table behind her. She pushed some of her purple locks from her face and picked up a stack of books, bound together with a blue ribbon.

"Suzuki Aika of Star Class 6, right?" she verified.

Aika nodded and took the books. Arisa led her over to a table and sat down. Aika set the books down and pulled on one of the strings, releasing the ribbon.

For almost two hours Arisa explained each subject and writing guidelines for each book. She also pointing out the pros and cons about each class, and most importantly (to Arisa at least) which classes are the best to sleep through.

Finally, after reviewing all of the subjects, they both collapsed face first onto the table, groaning. Though their rest was short lived when the door of the library burst open explosively.

Arisa took what minimal strength was left in her to lift her head to see what was going on. A similar burst of red and grey caused yet another groan to come out of Arisa. Shinyu's back.

The older girl ran over to Arisa, calling her name as she ran. Arisa groaned and put her hat on, lowering the brim in front of her face.

"Arisa-chaaaaan!~" She called, being repeatedly shushed by the librarians. But she ignored them and made her way to her destination.

"Shinyu…hi," Arisa mumbled. She acted like a slob when she was lazy…and hungry, and tired, and exhausted and…many others.

"Arisa-chan, I know we've known each other for like, a week, but I was wondering if you were free tomorrow so that you and Tsukiga-chan can come over to my place for a slumber party!" Shinyu paused at the end of her sentence, to look at Aika. After thinking for a moment, Shinyu started talking again, "And that girl can come too!"

Arisa scowled, but laughed in spite of herself, "That girl has a name you know."

Aika smiled shyly, "Suzuki Aika, pleased to meet you senpai," Aika greeted, bowing slightly in her seat.

A bright smile appeared on Shinyu's face, "Just call me Shinyu-chan! Senpai or not, I've been told I act like a 6 year old, so let's be friends."

Arisa yawned and poked Shinyu on the arm, "Shinyu-chan, do I really have to go…? Slumber parties aren't really my thing…"

Shinyu growled, "I knew this was going to happen…" There was a dramatic pause when Shinyu slammed her palm onto the table, causing heads to turn towards the source of the sound.

"That is why I already asked Kuukai-san if you could go!"

Arisa suddenly chocked on some unknown substance, "What the hell Shinyu?? I could've gotten away with not going!"

A devious smirk appeared on her lightly glossed lips, "You can't escape Arisa-chan~"

Arisa rolled her eyes and gathered her books, "Whatever Shinyu. So where's Kuukai?"

By now, Arisa noticed Shinyu's flaming red hair, swish behind her as she exited the library. Arisa yawned yet again and stood up. She picked up her bag and turned to Aika, "Come on, let's walk together."

Aika though, was carrying the pile of books she needed, or wanted to take home. Her arms quaked from the weight and she was leaning back slightly, almost falling back. Arisa dashed forward and took a bit more than half of the pile after putting her bag's strap over her shoulder.

Aika immediately relaxed and sighed of relief, "Thanks…"

Arisa shrugged, "No problem. How about I walk home with you?"

"But don't you have to get home?" She asked, blowing some hair out of her face.

Arisa shrugged again; it was becoming a habit for whenever she spoke, "Not really. I can tell them I was being a pack mule for the new girl at school," Arisa joked.

A look of horror came onto Aika's face. She suddenly felt extremely guilty, "No, it's alright! I'll manage! You don't have to come!" She told her frantically.

Arisa rolled her eyes, "Chillax Aika, I was just joking. Now let's go, I want to see your house anyway." She led Aika out of the library and walked down the stairs. When they exited the building, they spotted Hikaru, Ryu and Daisuke playing soccer.

They both waved at them, calling their names. They walked over to them, and were greeted with a soccer ball rushing right past their heads.

Aika suddenly screamed and ducked her head. Arisa put the books she was carrying down and patted Aika on the shoulder, "Aika-san, are you okay?"

She nodded shakily and smiled shyly, "I'm good."

Arisa glared at Daisuke, "Yo dunderhead, watch where you kick that ball or you'll have to start sleeping with your eyes open!"

The male, brunette smiled sheepishly and apologized. Hikaru went over to calm Arisa down and prevent a fight that is bound to eventually happen and Ryu made his way over to Aika and helped her up. A ferocious blushed appeared on her face as she tugged her hand out of his.

As Arisa yelled at Daisuke for something that isn't really worth mentioning, Saaya walked by them, taking note of Arisa.

"Hoshiwa-san?" She wondered out loud.

Arisa, who was in the middle of strangling Daisuke, and holding Hikaru off, glanced over at the voice, "Yo, what do you want?"

Saaya signalled her to follow her a bit away from the group. She crouched, and Arisa followed suit. Saaya's bright green eyes darted from the group, standing dumbfounded, back to Arisa. Suddenly she asked, "You know, talk to and hang out with _boys_?"

Arisa nodded slowly, not really understanding what she wanted to know from her. Saaya gasped dramatically, "So brave!"

Arisa' smiled uneasily and scratched the back to her head.

"So are you going out with all three of them?" Saaya asked in a hushed whisper.

Arisa's uneasy expression instantly turned to a shocked and downright furious one. She gagged, "Gross, no! They're called _friends_ Saaya, you should try it."

She stormed off, back to the group. When they asked what she said, she repeated what Saaya had told her, and they were all silent. Suddenly they broke out laughing leaning onto each other for support, "Dating all three of us? That's rich!"

"Exactly, why would I go out with buffoons like you guys?" Arisa laughed, gripping Hikaru's shoulder. Ryu laughed quietly and glanced at Aika who was standing by the books, attempting to carry more.

After the laugh-fest finished, Arisa bid her good byes to the group and picked up Aika's books and they continued on the way.

As the two girls walked together, they asked each other random questions about each other to get to know each other better. Some of the many topics were their birthday, favourite colour, siblings, old houses, old friends, but the conversation that lasted the longest was the one about their favourite colour…for some reason.

Arisa blew her bangs out of her face and squinted into the sunset, over the hill, "So what's your favourite colour?"

Aika didn't hesitate and answered enthusiastically, "BLUE!" The brunette laughed at her new friend's enthusiasm and decided to join in.

She shouted, "WHY?!" and smiled when Aika laughed. Aika cleared her throat dramatically and shouted, "BECAUSE IT KEEPS ME CALM!!"

Arisa rolled eyes and thought, yeah right, but wanted to keep the conversation going and asked her, "DOES IT ACTUALLY WORK?"

Aika shook her head, nearly dropping her pile of books. Seriously, books aren't that easy to carry.

"NOPE, BUT IF I REALLY THINK IT DOES, THEN SOMETIMES IT WORKS!!"

Arisa laughed loudly, then Aika asked Arisa, "WHAT ABOUT YOU? WHAT'S YOUR FAVOURITE COLOUR?"

Arisa too, did not hesitate and answered, and screamed, "PURPLE!!!!"

Her yell was so loud it echoed through the empty street and a few of the neighbourhood dogs began howling back. Aika looked at Arisa in amazement. Arisa was smiling smugly. She was always proud of how loud her voice can be.

Recovering from her friend's vocal explosion, she asked, "DON'T YOU HAVE A REASON WHY YOU LIKE IT?"

"WHO CARES?! PURPLE _**ROCKS!**_"

Arisa's exclamation caused some random old man to exit his house and stomp onto his porch. He waved his cane angrily in the air and shouted at them, "Hey, keep it down will ya?! I'm trying to wash my soap, and I can't with you crazy kids screaming' colours out here!"

As soon as they noticed his presence, they ran off snickering, being careful not to drop any books as they ran.

When they turned a courner, they slowed down. Arisa glanced at Aika, "You're a pretty fast runner."

She smiled at the compliment and shrugged carelessly, "I'm good at running just not at other sports."

Arisa frowned, "Really? If you're good at running, you'd probably rock at skating, cycling and… soccer!" Aika shifted nervously, "Well I never really skated, I don't know how to ride a bike, and I never played soccer…"

Arisa's chocolate brown eyes widened to the size of UFOs when she heard this, "You've never tried skating?!" Aika shook her head. "You don't know how to ride a bike?!" She shook her head again. "And you have _NEVER_ played soccer??" Aika shrugged, admitting her defeat.

A sigh escaped Arisa's lips, and her frown was suddenly replaced with a bright smile, "Even so, you'll never know until you try!"

Aika shrunk back slightly, fumbling with her books for a moment, "But what if I get hurt?"

Arisa grinned boyishly, and took a few of the books off of Aika's pile, then I'll bring you flowers everyday while you're in the hospital!"

Aika giggled and turned, walking up the worn down driveway of her house. "I have killer allergies so I'll give you a list of the ones that won't kill me."

Arisa stared up at the house in awe. Aika, who had noticed told her, "I know it's not a huge shiny mansion, but I guess my family just wants to lay low or something…"

"Are you crazy?" Arisa asked with a large smile on her face. She stared in astonishment, "You have the coolest house ever! It's so old looking and…mysterious."

Aika laughed, and pulled and key out of her bag while setting her stack of books on one of the patio chairs. She turned the key and gave the door forceful pushes until it opened.

Arisa stepped up her stone steps and entered the house. She took her shoes off out of courtesy.

Aika led her upstairs and stopped Arisa right outside her door.

"Wait here, my room's a mess!" She commanded. Arisa cocked a curious brow at the blue haired girl, "It's no big deal, I'll be in there for like, five seconds anyway."

Aika shook her head stubbornly. She slammed the door shut in Arisa and began rummaging around the room, stuffing clothes into her closet and papers into her desk. Outside the door Arisa pressed her ear against the door, listening to the bangs and crashes going on inside the room.

She rolled her eyes, _what does she keep in there? A zoo?_

Arisa's imagination was stopped when the door burst open, revealing Aika, with her bag in one hand and a young girl, about eight in the other. The young girl was squirming and shouting at Aika repeatedly.

"Onee-chan let me go!!" She shouted.

"Now, now Keiko-chan, what did I tell you about going into my room without permission?" Aika lectured to the girl, walking across the hall and opening another door, revealing a pink-painted room.

Aika shuffled the girl into the room, and closed it behind her.

Arisa stared, giving the whole, '. . .' expression/vibe. Aika led her into her room, and set the books down onto Aika's (miraculously) cleared desk. Arisa looked around the room, and literally, the only thing she saw was blue. There were blue walls, blue curtains, blue bed sheets, blue lamp, blue radio, and blue clothes spilling out of a…white closet. But besides the closet, (door, floor, ceiling, desk and bed posts) the entire room was freakin' blue.

"Do you suffer major anxiety attacks or something? Because I think the blue will drive you to the point of insanity before ever calming you down," Arisa joked.

Aika laughed dryly, "I guess, but it never hurt to try."

After Aika organized all the books, the two girls walked downstairs, into the kitchen. There, Aika's mom was cooking an ominous bubbling substance over the stove. Arisa tipped her hat in greeting and sat down at the table with Aika.

They both sat in silence, occasionally tapping at the wooden table. Suddenly Arisa burst out, "What am I even doing here?"

Aika laughed and stood up, "I have no idea." Arisa stood up as well, and followed Aika when she walked over to her mom, "This is Arisa-san. She was showing me around school and helping me with my books."

"How do you do Suzuki-san?" Arisa greeted bowing and removing her hat. The older woman laughed and continued stirring the substance in her pot, "You have a keeper Aika-chan."

Arisa shot back upward and poked Aika repeatedly on her arm, "Yo, ask your mom if you can come tonight!"

Aika jumped up, completely forgetting about the sleepover, "Right!" She turned to her mom and cleared her throat, "I was invited to a sleepover at one of my senpai's house tonight, can I go?"

She thought for a moment, then asked, "Is Arisa-san going?" Aika nodded in response.

"Well, if you can walk there with Arisa, then it's fine," she decided. Arisa cheered loudly and ran around the kitchen, waving her arms in the air. Aika's mom laughed again, "I'll see you next time you come over Arisa-san."

"Adios Suzuki-san!"

Arisa took her bag and made her way to the front hall. She put her shoes on and turned the door knob, but when it wouldn't open, she turned it the opposite direction and the door successfully clicked open.

She waved to Aika, "I'll be over at around 7:00 alright?"

Aika had a suddenly look of panic on her face as she paled, "I-I'll start packing right away."

Arisa snickered, "Just think of blue!"

From that point, Arisa sprinted home with the help of Koorei's chara-change and arrived in a matter of minutes. She swing the door open and called into the house, "Hana-saaaaaan!"

Just as she shut the door behind her, her body was suddenly embraced by one only slightly taller than her.

"K-Kuukai, hi. What's up?"

"Where were you?" He asked, sounding greatly relieved to see her.

"I was just helping Aika; this new girl, carry her textbooks home, don't worry."

Even though she felt his shoulders physically drop and relax, he still wouldn't let go of her.

"Kuukai…can you let go of me now?" Arisa asked, colour suddenly rising to her cheeks. Kuukai practically jumped off when he realized what was happening. He quickly apologized and rushed up the stairs.

Arisa shrugged, mentally forcing the blush to leave her face. Grumbling bitterly, she entered the kitchen and greeted Hana with a smile.

"Hana-san?"

The older woman glanced over at Arisa, "What is it?"

Taking a deep breath, she knew she would regret asking, and just going. She would be sure to never let Hiro hear of this.

"I was invited to my friend, Shinyu-san's house tonight for a sleep over and I was wondering if I could go, since she isn't giving me a choice on going."

Hana stared at Arisa in astonishment, "Well, you mom did tell me to give you permission to any party where you might make female friends, so go ahead. But if you're walking there, Kuukai's coming with you okay?"

Arisa nodded, and dashed up the stairs passing by Kuukai. Just before she ran into the room, she grabbed onto Kuukai's sleeve, but slipped on the polished wood flooring. She fell to the ground, but quickly recovered and held onto Kuukai.

"I'm going to Shinyu's for the night, and I need you to walk me over!"

For a second, he just stared, dumbfounded, then eventually agreed. Arisa jumped up in happiness (though she wasn't very sure why) and suddenly hugged him.

After releasing him, she ran into the bedroom, leaving Kuukai, completely red in the face.

Arisa pulled Korii's egg from her bag and shook it until it opened. Korii was sitting in her egg innocently, but had a coy smirk on her lips.

"What can I do for you Arisa-chan?" She asked innocently.

Arisa growled and turned slightly red, "What did I tell you about chara-changing with me, Korii?!"

She shrugged offhandedly as if she was going to make a mere observation of the weather, "But you know you enjoyed that hug."

Arisa's face turned bright red, and instead of screaming to something nobody else would be able to see, she pulled one of her bags and began packing her things.

Koorei floated up to Korii who was sitting ideally in her cup, watching Arisa fuss over what she had said. He sat next to her, "Are you sure she's going to be okay?"

She shrugged again and flipped her bangs back, "Nope."

Arisa, who had never been to a sleepover before thought of it like when she goes camping with her friends, clothes, brush, extra hair ties, toothbrush, her phone, and finally, Lappy-chan.

She zipped up the zipper and called her charas over. Arisa walked down the stairs quickly, temped to slide down the railing, but the framed photographs lining the stairs would threaten to fall off even if she put too much preasure on the railing.

When she reached the bottom, Kuukai was standing by the door ready to leave. As she pulled a thin sweater on, she felt a buzzing in her pant pocket.

She pulled out her cell phone and put it to her ear, "Moshi moshi?~"

Apparently it was Aika (they had shared cell phone numbers on the way to her house). Instead of walking with Arisa, she was going with her mom instead. Arisa just shrugged and hung up, letting her know it was fine. After she threw the phone back into her bag, she turned to Kuukai, "About that time when I randomly hugged you…it was chara-change you got that?"

He blushed lightly and nodded, "Well of course, it's not like you'd hug me through your own will anyway…"

Arisa looked away, blushing slightly as well, "E-exactly."

They left the house in an awkward silence; the worst kind of silence.

When they were about half way to Shinyu's house, a car zoomed by them, and through a puddle, covering Arisa with the filthy liquid.

Though only drops of it landed in her hair, the entire front on her thin sweater was covered with the street sludge and was seeping through her clothes until it clung to her skin.

She looked down at her shirt, disgusted. Then looked at the spot the car had driven off from.

"Stupid, freaking, planet-killing, puddle-splashing, retarded, failure of an ass hole car!!" She cried after it. She took a handful of the soaked hem of her shirt, she twisted it, until most of the water had splashed onto the sidewalk.

She sighed observing the rest of her torso, "Stupid car…"

Kuukai had stuffed his hands in his jacket's pockets, and turned his head, realizing how revealing the soaked shirt made her.

So instead of trying to not look at her for the rest of the walk (which would be about 20 minutes) he removed his jacket quietly and held it out to her, still looking in the opposite direction to hide his blush.

"With your shirt like that…somebody might pull an 'Ikuto' on you, so just to be safe, it'd be better if you wore my jacket.

Arisa took the thick jacket hesitantly, "Won't you be cold?"

He shook his head, "Nah, I'll be fine. If anything were to happen to you, I'd never hear the end of it so…put it on."

Hearing the shuffling of his heavy jacket, he decided that it was safe to look at her again. His jacket was way too big on her, the sleeves hanging about half a foot from her hands and the end of the zipper going all the way down to her knees.

To him, the sight was just really…cute. But when she glared up at him, he forced all thoughts like that out of his head.

"Don't you dare start being weird with me," she told him, pouting slightly. She has been told she looked cute when she wore clothes too big for her, and personally, she doesn't _do_ cute.

He scoffed, "You're the one who's being weird…"

As they walked onto Shinyu's street, the houses got larger and larger.

Kuukai decided to tell Arisa the information he knows to make sure she doesn't drive Shinyu crazy.

"By the way," he began; Arisa glanced up at him with curious eyes, "What's up?"

He exhaled slowly, telling this to other people was never easy, but he trusted Arisa and she was a good person. Of course she'd never misuse this information.

"Nobody really knows about this, but Shinyu-chan lives alone."

Arisa shrugged, "That's not big deal."

He continued, "She lives alone because her family was killed."

Arisa stopped in her tracks staring at the sidewalk with a look of horror on her face. A strange feeling welled up in her stomach and she suddenly felt like she couldn't breath.

She's never really known anyone with immediate family members dead, let alone their entire family altogether.

Kuukai looked worriedly at Arisa. If he knew it was such a sensitive topic to her, then he wouldn't have brought it up in the first place. Guilt churned in his stomach, but when he watched her legs give way under her, he immediately rushed over to her, catching her before she could hit the pavement. A single tear escaped her eye, and her body began to quake.

She never knew the pain of losing somebody close to her, but suddenly, it felt like the feeling of everybody on the planet who had lost someone, was all put together into Arisa. The pain raked through her body. Kuukai began to rock her and stoke her hair soothingly, wishing the best for her.

Eventually, Kuukai heard footsteps, rushing towards them. It was Shinyu, Tsukiga and Aika, apparently he and Arisa were that late.

Surprisingly, Tsukiga was the first one to speak out, "What happened?"

Kuukai nodded, embracing Arisa. Shinyu knelt down next to Arisa and Kuukai and patted Arisa on her shoulder. Her head listed slightly and looked around her, wiping stray tears from her eyes.

"What the hell was that?" A small smile appeared on her face as she sniffled once and stood up, using Kuukai's shoulders as a support.

She wobbled for a bit, but stood up successfully. The three girls approached her, being careful not to shock her too much.

"Arisa, what happened?" Tsukiga asked once again. Kuukai stood up and looked Shinyu in the eyes, "I told her."

Shinyu's eyes opened wide, and at that moment, slapped him across the face.

"Idiot! She didn't need to know about it!" Shinyu screamed.

"Well you wanted to be your friend, wondering where your family is, while the whole time you'll just make up some crazy lie?" He shouted back.

Shinyu stepped back, her eyes shadowing over, "…Fine. But if she can't take it, there's only you to blame." He was silent, and picked up Arisa's bag and handed it to her carefully.

"Have fun." His smile brightened all his features and Arisa couldn't help but stare. The setting sun behind her reflected off his smooth tanned skin, his bright green eyes seeming even livelier than usual.

Without even thinking, he leant down to her height and lightly pressed his lips to her forehead.

After muttering a quick, "Be careful," he dashed off, his face crimson red. Shinyu, Tsukiga and Aika stood staring at the scene in shock. Arisa's eyes glazed over and she just stared into space while her face turned red.

Shinyu's suddenly screaming and shouting knocked her out of whatever she was thinking of. Shinyu took Arisa by the arm excitedly and instructed Aika to get her bag. Arisa's ears were suddenly filled with excited squeals and shrieks from the red-head as she led her into Shinyu's rather…_gigantic_ estate.

The house—mansion was constructed of faded brown bricks and had large windows for each room. The walls were covered in vines of roses. The front steps were made of a smoothed stone, and the front door had a stained glass design of a large H on it.

Arisa suddenly remembered, slumber party, means girl stuff. Girl stuff means Arisa could possibly kill herself.

Even with the sudden display of affection from Kuukai, and Shinyu's incredibly loud voice, somehow, all Arisa could hear in her mind, _I'm doomed. So doomed._

As Arisa was forcibly dragged into the mansion, Kuukai walked down the street, shivering ever so slightly, but the temperature of his face keeping the rest of his body warm.

It wasn't until he had ran off, he had realized what he had done.

_This is going to be so weird…_


	14. Party At Shinyu's

**Seriously, I'm REALLY sorry if I've left anyone hanging with my stupidity of not posting these chapters D: Jeez, my levels of idiocy never cease to amaze me XD Ejoy the chapter and remember to review!**

_**I do not own any part of Shugo Chara! But really, this chapter's mostly our wonderful OC crew :3**_

The Colours of Love: Chapter 13

Party Shinyu's

Shinyu swung the double doors of her house open, causing a loud bang when the door slammed into the wall behind it. Arisa wiggled in her friend's grasp and constantly yelled at them, demanding her immediate release.

"Damn it you guys; let go of me!"

Being the super random air-head Shinyu is, she completely ignored Arisa and suddenly whistled, causing Arisa to cringe from the sound. She has sensitive ears.

"Arisa-chaaaaan, since you're late, we're technically behind schedule and I have to show you everything I showed Tsukiga-chan and Aika-chan, in half the time!"

"Shinyu's house is HUGE! And really shiny!" Aika exclaimed, clearly hyper on ice cream or some other source of sugar.

"Her dog tried to eat me…" Tsukiga muttered bitterly, crossing her arms.

"D-dog?!" Arisa cried, excited. She has loved dogs for as long as she could remember, she has loved, loved, LOVED dogs and still does (even though some don't really like her back) But the ones that do, make her extremely happy and leaves her cheerful and skipish for hours on end.

A large, long-haired, golden retriever bundled into the room, wagging its tail excited for more visitors.

Arisa, excited as well, got down on all fours, removing her bag from her shoulder, greeted the dog happily.

"Arisa-chan, this is my dog Daisy-chan! She rocks and hopefully you'll get along with her!" Shinyu told her. Daisy was excessively sniffing Arisa as she laughed when the dog's fur brushed against her bare arms. Arisa pat her behind the ears, enjoying the feel of the silky fur under her fingers.

After the quick tour of Shinyu's massive estate, they stopped at the final stop; Shinyu's room.

It had six walls in all, with boldly painted red, black and purple with silver designs tracing around the door, window and closet. The floor was covered with a simple, beige carpet and a silver framed bunk bed sat in the courner.

Arisa looked up. The ceiling had a currently spinning ceiling fan while the rest of the ceiling was dark purple covered in small stars. According to Shinyu the stars glowed in the dark.

As they preceded more into the center of the room, Arisa gawked at the full body poster of Hoshina Utau on the back of Shinyu's door. Shinyu's cheeks turned pink slightly "Shut up."

Arisa gaped in amazement at the rest of the room as she continued stroking Daisy over her back and dropping her bag to the floor.

For the next little while, they set up mattresses and food; lots and lots of food. They all sped down the stairs and entered the marble themed kitchen, Arisa dashing straight for the fridge.

Her eyes shone with excitement when she spotted the many 2 litre bottles of soda, juice, water, and root beer sitting in the fridge grouped together. Shinyu who was grabbing prepared bowls of chips, chocolate and cookies, called over to Arisa, "Hey Ari-chan, can you take some of those for me?"

Letting loose a joyful cheer, she grabbed as many bottles as she could and dashed up the stairs, meeting in Shinyu's room.

As she ran up the old wooden stairs to the colourful room, she noticed the small amount of pictures on the wall. But the largest, centered picture was a gigantic portrait of Shinyu when she was younger, about eight, with an even younger girl with her, sitting on her lap.

The younger one had curly brown locks, framing her face that reached a bit past her shoulders. She held a small doll in her hand and was smiling brightly at the camera. The two girls shared the same bright purple eyes and looked as if they didn't have a care in the world.

Arisa smiled solemnly. That must have been Shinyu's younger sister, one of her family members who had died.

She made her way up the stairs slowly, observing each picture, and each memory it carried within its frame. Finally at the top of the stairs, Shinyu called Arisa from behind her door, making Arisa run.

Inside, the room was practically transformed; a wide coffee table was moved to the side of the room where all the snacks were placed along with several plastic cups. Next to it was a large pile of magazines and on the other side of the room, a large, black and purple stereo with surround sound placed around the room.

Aika, who was crouching by the stereo, was looking through piled of CDs while Tsukiga was sitting cross legged on the other side of the room, flipping through magazines.

After setting the large bottles on the table, she hopped over to Aika, picked a random CD that looked particularly shiny to her, and inserted it into the stereo. Instantly, music blasted from the speakers, suddenly shocking everyone in the room.

Aika screamed in shock and assumed a fatal position, while Tsukiga jumped and swore…loudly. Shinyu rushed into the room to see what the commotion was about, but only stared at Arisa who was laughing loudly at Tsukiga who was glaring sharp and pointy objects at the brunette.

"Let's get this party started!" Shinyu laughed, waltzing into the room.

For the next several hours, they danced and talked, read magazines, sang loudly into hairbrushes and chased each other wildly around the room.

As Shinyu and Aika chatted the evening away, and while Tsukiga sat against the wall next to them, flipping through a magazine, Arisa sat contently by the blasting music with a bowl of chips in her lap. This went on for several hours until they all grew silent and randomly bored.

Then exactly one minute later, they all whipped out their phones, having the same idea.

"Who wants to prank call someone?!" They shared a look of amazement, then laughed and shouted excitedly.

All of the girls crowded around Shinyu's phone, shouting out any random idea that magically popped into their heads. In the middle of this chaos, Arisa's voice randomly dropped a few octaves lower, causing her voice to sound more male than it ever has.

They turned their heads at Arisa, knowing she was the source of the sound. She cleared her throat, and shrunk back in embarrassment.

Tsukiga was the first out of the three girls to speak. She let loose a small laugh, "Was that you Arisa-kun?"

Laughing nervously, she replied, "Y-yeah…"

Aika and Shinyu both stared at Arisa in pure disbelief. They spoke simultaneously, "You sound just like Ikuto-kun." They heads whizzed to face each other with expressions of surprise and shock, "How you know Ikuto-kun??" they both demanded at once.

At this time, Arisa and Tsukiga inched away from the situation and unlike trying to stop the incoming fight happening like a pair of good friends would do; they decided it'd be funner to watch from the sidelines.

The two girls glared at each other, interrogating each other fiercely.

"When did you two meet?"

"What's your business with him?"

"Did you know he tried to rape me?"

They both turned to Arisa, leaning against Tsukiga boredly.

Aika stared at Arisa in disbelief, "I'm telling Utau-san!"

Shinyu gasped, somewhat over dramatically at Aika, "You know Hoshina-sama as well??"

"And if I do? Plus, I'm not the one who's _obviously_ head-over-heels in love with Ikuto-chan," Aika told Shinyu smugly. As this took place; sitting in the background, Arisa ooh-ed dramatically.

At that statement, Shinyu's face turned so red, you could barely tell the colour difference between her hair and her face. "I am NOT head-over-heels in love with him! He's part of Easter, he's the enemy, I'm not aloud to like him anyway!"

Noticing the tense air for the first time, Shinyu relaxed her shoulders and looked at her friends who stared with surprise.

A laugh bubbled up her throat as she grabbed for a pillow on her bed. "I don't like him like that so stop teasing me about it," she laughed as she launched the cushion at Aika who gave a sudden shout of surprise.

Another pillow sailed across the room, landing in Shinyu's face. She looked in the direction of it, only to find Arisa, her lands loaded with pillows and her tongue stuck out at the older girl.

"Sleep-overs may not be my thing, but if you challenge me to a pillow fight then you are DOOMED!"

After throwing another pillow in her direction, Arisa bolted to the other side of the room, when Shinyu approached her.

Aika armed herself grabbing one of the pillows she was previously sitting on, and charged into the battle going on between Shinyu.

Tsukiga on the other hand, gathered a pile and constructed a fort of pillows around her. But when one of them launched a pillow at her, landing spot on her head, Tsukiga stood up and grabbed pillows. She glared at them fiercely while the other girls stifled their laughter and ran for their lives when Tsukiga charged at them.

Screams were heard, pillows were thrown, expensive sounding things were destroyed and shrieks of distress echoed throughout the halls of the house.

They all crowded around the broken vase. It had many different designs of roses on vines on it. As Shinyu stared in disbelief at the broken vase, Arisa looked around the room.

For the first time she had noticed all the forms of roses, rose themed designs and vase full's of roses there were in the house.

Shinyu heaved a heavy sigh, then dropped the pieces she held in her hand and stood up, smiling weakly.

Aika waved her hands in front of herself frantically, apologizing at the speed of wind.

"I-I'm really sorry Shinyu-san! I'm sorry, I really didn't mean to!" She apologized.

Tsukiga looked sympathetically at the red head, "Really Shinyu-chan. And I know how much this stuff means to you…"

Arisa sat down and picked up one of the larger pieces with a simple painted rose on it. After observing for a moment, she looked up at Shinyu and asked, "Say, what was your…little sister's name?"

A dreamy smile graced the older girl's features, "Aikaze Roze…"

Aika and Arisa gave a small laugh, Tsukiga smiling. She still remembers when she found out the utter obvious connection between Shinyu's choice of décor and her past.

"Wow, Roze-san must've been one awesome sister to get her older sister to deck her house out with her name," Arisa joked, handing the piece to Shinyu.

"Actually, Roze-chan would act very similar like you Arisa-chan. And she was a great sister."

Arisa and Aika laughed simultaneously. They have this joke and…really it makes no sense to most.

Aika burst out, "Shinyu-chan, if you're little sister acts like _Arisa_ then she's nearly equivalent to a younger BROTHER!" Arisa laughed hysterically as Aika told her.

Tsukiga began laughing as well, but Shinyu, being the air-head she can be, looked confused, "Eh? But Arisa-chan's a girl isn't she?"

Arisa rolled her eyes, getting down on her knees and arranging the pieces of the broken vase into a pile, "Shinyu have you ever met a tomboy, ergo, a girl who acts like a boy and hates being a girl?"

Shinyu shook her head. Arisa sighed and shot up, with her hands positioned in a peace sign, "Well Shinyu-chan, that would be me. So please stop calling Arisa-chan because Ari-kun will do just fine!" Shinyu shrugged offhandedly and agreed, beginning to pick up some of the pieces of the vase.

Shinyu laughed slightly, "Whatever, but just to warn you I _love_ shopping."

Arisa shuddered and rolled her eyes, "Good thing I don't."

After a while of silence, Shinyu sighed deeply. Suddenly she turned to face the other girls who were watching her quietly, "You know what?"

"What?" the three replied at the same time.

After staring at the trio strangely for a second, she continued, "Who wants to go hunt some X-eggs?"

Tsukiga, for once, cheered loudly. Arisa though yawned and shrugged, agreeing. Aika though looked somewhat un-easy from hearing the term 'hunt X-eggs' but agreed none-the-less.

Clapping happily, Shinyu called her chara Hanachi to her side. The rest of the group did the same and their charas assembled at their respective owner's sides, except for Tsuki and Koorei who were lazing behind.

After devising a well thought out plan (yeah right) they set off, wandering around and looking for an X-egg or two.

Sighing of boredom once they reached Seiyo Academy grounds, they glanced around.

Shinyu wondered out loud, "There aren't any X-eggs anywhere today?"

"Maybe Amu's hunting them as well," Arisa pointed out.

Tsukiga and Shinyu sighed. Aika stared ahead of them, in the direction of the eastern wing of the building, "Does anybody else feel that…?"

Koorei frantically sniffed the air, "Oh I feel it alright. It reeks of X-eggs!"

Arisa raised her arms and sniffed under, jokingly, "Well, I'm pleased to report that it's not me!"

Tsukiga's chara, Akari, pointed in the direction Aika was previously looking at, "It's coming from over there!"

Aika's eyes glazed over, "What on earth…?"

-

The entire office was dark except for the sunlight streaming through the small cracks in the window-blinds.

There was a brisk knock on the door. "Come in," a gruff voice responded to it.

A blue haired, blue eyed teen walked calmly into the room with a white violin case over his shoulder. He wore a dark grey high school uniform, and kept his hands stuffed in his pockets. By his side floated a chara with hair of a similar shade, but sported a pair of blue cat ears as well.

"Tsukiyomi Ikuto," the man began. Ikuto looked boredly at him and replied, "You wished to see me, Gozen-san?"

The man grunted, then continued, "I have a new mission for you Ikuto." Naturally, he rolled his eyes, but forced himself to the old man's rant/lecture.

"Whatever you wish, Gozen-san," Ikuto replied, biting back his sarcastic tone.

"At Seiyo Academy, there is a new transfer student. There is a rumour that she has the ability to purify 99 eggs at once. Since her name is unknown to us, we call her '99'."

Ikuto smirked; Hoshiwa Arisa, the new, and very loud Guardian.

"Also," Gozen continued, "It's also been reported that Suzuki Aika is attending the school as well." Ikuto's expression remained un-changed as he personally wondered if the old man was really the last one to know anything.

Ikuto made a sound of acknowledgment. Gozen continued, "Your mission is to retrieve '99' and convince her to work for Easter. Her strength would come in handy. Also, Suzuki and '99' work with two other companions who could be equally as powerful so retrieve them as well."

Sighing quietly, he complied.

"Your mission also consists of bringing Suzuki Aika back to Easter. Fail one of them; and you fail them both."

Ikuto's eyes widened and shared a worried look with Yoru, the chara next to him. He understood that Aika wanted to be free from Easter, and wouldn't want to be any part of dragging her back.

"But why do we need them? They're just school-girls," Ikuto said, somehow hoping it would change Gozen's mind.

His remark obviously angered the man, and it showed even clearer when he snapped at Ikuto, "Because Suzuki-san actually followed her orders and with '99' we'll be able to make more progress finding the Embryo, fool!"

Even though Ikuto knew how he had angered Gozen, he couldn't stop defending his friend, "So the mass company Easter is resorting to depending on little girls to get the Embryo now?"

Gozen stood up from anger and growled threateningly at him, while Ikuto's expression remained unchanged; mocking.

"Ikuto!!" He yelled.

"No wonder Utau left. This company is a bunch of weaklings striving for something to great for them and could only get to it using other's strength and never their own. It's amazing that I never left yet."

Even from behind the murky curtain, anyone could see the evil smirk appearing on Gozen's face.

"Do you want to find your father or not, Ikuto-kun?"

Ikuto's aquamarine eyes widened, but then closed in concentration.

"I accept your offer," he stated, turning to leave. He turned back around and glared angrily at Gozen, "The man who uses others because he, himself is too weak will always be the one losing."

Ikuto slammed the door shut, leaving Gozen smiling evilly, sitting back down onto his chair.

He paced down the hallway, Yoru reassuring the teen. Once they reached the front steps of the building, he sat down and sighed aloud. Yoru floated by him loyally with a sad look on his face, "Ikuto, nya. Are you really going to do this?"

The small chara suddenly felt the change of his aura from a sad one to a fierce one.

"Tomorrow Yoru; tomorrow we strike because we have no other choice." His usual aquamarine eyes were usually a variety of bored, sad, amused, tired or mad. But when he said that, they were completely void of any emotion and that scared Yoru.

The chara shrunk back slightly and bowed his head, "O-okay Ikuto…nya."

-

The group ran in the direction Aika and Koorei lead them in. Right before they turned a courner to the back of the building, they spotted a lone X-egg hopping on the walkway.

A dangerous smirk appeared on Shinyu's lips as she eyed the X-egg. Arisa looked at the object in excitement, but before she could say anything, Shinyu broke her off, "Now, now; play nice Arisa-kun. I remember what happened last time, so no chara-nari for you!"

Arisa pouted, but was interrupted when Aika pointed excitedly. From the other side of the wall, a few other X-eggs appeared joining the first one.

"Useless, useless…" they squeaked.

Tsukiga decided, "On the count of three, we charge."

They agreed and waited for the countdown, "One…two…"

"THREE!" They four of them charged forward at the four X-eggs, chara-changing.

Noticing their charge, the small; group of X-eggs made a break for it, back behind the wall they had come from.

Smiling smugly, Shinyu followed. But when she turned the courner, her grin disappeared and was replaced with a look of shock. The three other girls joined her shortly, gasps escaping their lips.

Laid out before them was a massive swarm of X-eggs, all floating together, their X's facing the girls.

"Shiiiit," Arisa began. "We're screwed aren't we?"

Tsukiga shrugged, then summoned her katana which appeared in her hands, "Maybe."

Aika wielded a sword as well. Hers was made of flames, and she also wore a black graduation hat with a sun dangling from a string. The hilt of her sword was decorated with sun designs of many fiery colours and a long collection of ribbons at the end of the hilt.

Arisa pulled her gloves on tighter and glared daringly at the crowd of X-eggs. "It's your call Shinyu-chan!"

When she didn't respond, the three of them turned around worriedly, "Shinyu-chan…?"

"Atashi no kokoro, UNLOCK!"

On reflex, Arisa took the goggles from her bangs and covered her eyes. She looked at her other two friends, covering their eyes with their arms from the bright light.

Arisa puffed her cheeks in annoyance, but smiled, "Cheater…"

The bright green light eventually faded and revealed Shinyu wearing a shoulder-less, grass, green dress that reached her knees. Her ruby hair was flowing in the wind, and had several vines entangled into it and had a large multi-peatled, magenta flower entwined into her bangs.

She also had a necklace around her neck, which had a flower similar to the one in her hair.

"Chara nari; Green Dance. "

A mischievous smirk made its way onto her lips, and she suddenly snapped her fingers. Her friends stared in fascination. Even for Tsukiga, it was her first time seeing Shinyu transform.

At the snap, two large, ferocious looking flowers appeared behind her. They growled and snarled at the X-eggs with barred teeth, causing them to whimper in fear. Arisa whooped loudly at Shinyu, who sported another daring smile on her usually, calm and happy face.

She whistled sharply, and the two carnivorous plants rushed forward in a blur. Once they did so, Tsukiga looked at Aika, who looked to Arisa, who nodded. They dashed forward as well, purifying X-eggs as they went.

Eventually, Shinyu sped into the mass of X-eggs as well. She launched vines surrounding them, and flowers bloomed. As the blossoms opened, they released a faint pinkish powder, which caused the X-eggs to freeze and become purified.

"Useless…useless…" they all whimpered as they were disinfected. Faster and faster, more cleansed X-eggs sped off into the, now dark night sky.

When about half the swarm has been purified, Shinyu sighed contently as a cool evening breeze swished her hair in different directions and cooled the thin layer of perspiration gathering on her forehead.

She looked over at her friends with curious, purple eyes.

Tsukiga was whizzing around, purifying eggs at every second. Her movements were quick, yet graceful…unlike Arisa's.

Since she was able to purify eggs at the touch, she was attempting to juggle them. Sadly for her since they were purified they would fly away from her, leaving her with a sad, distressed look on her face.

Aika was swinging the sword around with much energy, since that's what her chara Haruhi was all about; energy.

Shinyu sighed again, purifying a few more X-eggs before calling her giant plants off.

But suddenly through the crowd of X-eggs, she spotted the body of a man wearing an expensive looking tux. He looked about in his mid-40s. His silhouette was faint, but Shinyu could recognize the man from anywhere.

Her eyes widened, but then glared dangerously as she spat his name out as if saying his name itself tasted awful.

"Hamagichi…"

His gaze caught hers, and she spotted a devilish grin appear on his face. As he made his way through the swarm X-eggs towards her, Shinyu unconsciously stepped back.

"W-what the hell are you doing here?!" Shinyu demanded.

The man walked in long, easy strides, holding a small mechanical device in his hands.

Aika, Arisa, and Tsukiga rushed to Shinyu's side. They all stared at the man in wonder. "Shinyu…" Aika began, worried.

Arisa looked up at Shinyu's face. Her eyes were wide with fear, but burning with anger. Tsukiga glared at the man, and switched her chara-change with Kurai.

A black and white, archery bracer appeared on her right arm and she held a pure black long-bow and a quiver of arrows.

Notching an arrow on her bow, she called over to Hamigichi, "Take another step closer and I'm shooting."

Arisa and Aika, looked from their friends to the man, oblivious, Arisa asked, "Shinyu-chan…who's that?"

The question seemed to make Shinyu quake with emotion. Though, whether it was fear, anger or frustration was unknown to them. She growled angrily, then shot her head up and glared dangerously at the man who stood across from her, several meters away.

"That's…Hamigichi; the man who killed my family," she stated, a stray year escaper her eyes.

The devilish smile resurfaced on Hamigichi's face, "So nice to see you too Shinyu-chan. How's your family doing? In fact, how's _Roze-chan_ doing?"

Shinyu's mind was overtaken by her anger and hatred for the man. She summoned her plants and charged at him, blind with anger, "Shut the fuck up you murderer!"

Tsukiga sent the arrow she had notched, flying towards Hamigichi at high speeds. It skimmed his cheek, causing a thin cut to appear and a small trickle of blood to drip to the ground.

Her assault seemed to distract him long enough for Shinyu to charge at him with a raised fist.

His head was turned to stare at the arrow implanted into the ground by him in awe, but when he looked back at the group, he was found face-to-fist with, well, Shinyu's fist.

Blood gushed from his mouth as he bent over, gasping, but Shinyu didn't hold back at all. She sent a series of kicks, punches, and attacks of her carnivorous plants at him until he remained on the ground motionless.

Arisa watched her greatly angered friend and instinctively stepped forward, ready to help. Though her attempt to assist in the situation was blocked by Tsukiga's longbow, which she had put in front of Arisa, preventing her from moving any farther into the battle.

All Arisa did was gape at her green-haired friend with utter disbelief.

Aika agreed with what Arisa was trying to get across, "What would happen if Shinyu-chan got hurt? That guys reeks of dangerous!"

Tsukiga's face remained still and emotionless, even as she responded, "This is Shinyu's battle. Just…don't interfere."

Arisa looked worriedly at Shinyu, whose eyes were burning with anger as she looked at Hamigichi with the eyes of a wild animal. A small stream of blood trickled down the man's face as he stood up shakily, and he wiped it away quickly then looked smugly at Shinyu, "You've gotten faster since last time we met, Shinyu-chan. Roze-chan would be proud…if she were alive."

She yelled angrily at the smirking murderer, "SHUT THE _**FUCK**_ UP!"

As she swung another punch, he side-stepped causing her to fall forward a bit and punch a well constructed wall of X-eggs.

Barring her teeth she growled at him constantly, "Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up…"

After a while of taunting a livid Shinyu, she summoned her plants once more and they automatically began clearing a path through the X-eggs straight to Hamigichi. They whipped their vines at Hamigichi who dodged them and slashed their vines with a pocket knife he had pulled out.

The plants shrieked in pain, but continued unleashing their destruction on the man. Shinyu shouted wildly, sending thorny wines flying towards him.

Sadly, they were easily blocked by a group of X-eggs which shattered at the touch of the vines.

Shinyu whipped the thorns in all directions relentlessly shattering X-eggs around her. Eventually, Hamigichi retreated bidding a simple, care-free farewell to them, eyeing Arisa in particular, causing her internally shiver, but glare dangerously at him.

Shinyu's expression remained the same; shocked, angry, and like she had the need to kill.

Her character transformation disappeared and Hanachi appeared at her side. "Ohime-sama…"

The group ran up to her instantly and helped the girl to her feet. Tsukiga remained silent as she draped one of Shinyu's arms over her shoulders.

In fact, no one dared say a word as they made their way back to her estate.

Arisa pushed the door open, and was greeted by Daisy, who was curled up snugly at the base of the oak stairs. When she saw the limp body of Shinyu, she whimpered, her expression dropping as she approached the girl and began to examine her.

The group took careful steps up the stairs with Daisy trailing obediently in front of them. Once they reached Shinyu's room, the dog nudged the door open and the girls entered.

Tsukiga set Shinyu on the bed carefully then sighed solemnly.

Aika sat by the window, glancing at the lit city surrounding them, then saw the slight silhouette of a teenaged boy standing on one of the rooftops.

Just when both their aquamarine eyes met, he leaped off.

She squinted into the distance. _What are you doing now Ikuto-kun?_


	15. The After Party

**Did you know the last time I ever finished the chapter was 2 months ago? Well apparently I just kept wriintg, and writing and writing, until I reached 21 pages in size 8 Ariel. Doesn't sound FUN? XD ****And also because of constant writer's block, enjoy the random blooper/out takes XD**

**Well to those who may attempt this it ISN'T. But luckily for you reading people, you get uh….um…hold on. **

**You get 3 new chapters! But I'm too lazy (and busy) to post them all tonight so you'll have to wait in suspense! Now THAT sounds fun XD **

**P.S. It's properly formatted for once xD**

_**I do not own Shugo Chara! All I own is Arisa-chan, and maybe like, a third of Aika. **_

x-Chapter 14-x

-x-

**A. R. I. S. A****: The After Party**

_Purple. Chocolate. Stars_

Before departing from Shinyu's house to school the next day, they triple checked to make sure her state mentality was still in check.

"So you're sure you're going to be okay at school right?" Arisa asked, throwing her possessions into a bag. Shinyu nodded.

Bidding goodbye to Daisy, the girls shut the door and proceeded in different directions.

Shinyu was walking to the bus stop that'll take her to her high school, Tsukiga claimed she had errands to run so that left Arisa and Aika to walk to school together.

Not being much of a morning person, Arisa dragged her feet as she walked, yawning in sync with Koorei who floated lazily next to her. Aika on the other hand, isn't a morning person either, but always has too much energy all the time.

"Arisa, what did we have for homework? Did we have a test? Did you study??" She demanded at the sleepwalking girl next to her.

Arisa yawned again, and answered in the order of her questions, "No clue, probably not and no."

Aika heaved a sigh of relief, "Thank god! That makes me feel so much better."

The brunette quirked a brow at her friend, "Yo, what's that supposed to mean?"

Aika just shrugged, leaving Arisa to wallow in the silence…and nearly fall asleep while walking.

They walked in silence for a while until someone walked directly in front of them. Before Arisa could react, she nearly collided into the person, but instead of just bluntly falling to the ground, she was pulled back by Aika.

Arisa ficused her vision on what was in front of her. Mere millimetres from her face was the sharp end of a deadly scythe, that she nearly just walked into.

Regaining her senses, she lunged back with an expression of shock on her face. Chocolate brown eyes clashed with aqua as she glared hard at the boy in front of them.

"Rapist."

"Princess."

Before Arisa could lash out at the teenager, Aika grabbed her by the arm somehow pulling her back.

"Arisa, what are you doing? You shouldn't just randomly attack people!" Aika scolded.

Arisa shrugged, not caring and pfft-ed at her friend, "Sorry…but just seeing him gives me the urge to kick his ass."

Their glares locked, Ikuto's eyes remaining expressionless, while Arisa's shone with danger. Aika took a step back, slightly intimidated by the tension in the air.

"I like pie."

"Well I like cake."

"Pie is cooler!"

"Shut up!"

"Why aren't you fighting?" Aika asked in the middle of their...argument(?).

They stared at her, "Cause pie is cooler than cake."

Suddenly Yoru appeared from behind Ikuto and whacked him on the head with his large kitty paws. "Ikuto, nya, you're supposed to be recruiting Arisa-chan for Easter!"

Ikuto pouted slightly, "But she dissed the cake."

Shinyu (who randomly appeared) yelled at them, "What the fell's happening to the chapter???"

Arisa stared at her for a moment, then sighed, "Fiiiiiine, be mean."

~*~

Their glares locked, Ikuto's eyes remaining expressionless, while Arisa's shone with danger. Aika took a step back, slightly intimidated by the tension in the air.

"Hoshiwa Arisa, you are to…join the dark side; we have cake."

"No way! I like PIE! Get it straight stupid-face!"

Shinyu glared at them (where did she even come from?) "Would you actually be serious for once??"

~*~

Their glares locked, Ikuto's eyes remaining expressionless, while Arisa's shone with danger. Aika took a step back, slightly intimidated by the tension in the air.

"Hoshiwa Arisa, you are to join Easter whether you like it or not." Ikuto stated calmly. Arisa's face twisted as she looked at him, his eyes emotionless, "Eh? That's weird, because I really don't want to."

"Then fight."

Ikuto charged forward, his death scythe in hand, ready to slash anything in its way.

And as Joyce suffers _**another**_ writer's block, please enjoy…Tadase braiding Nagihiko's hair!

Or not. I need a therapist.

-sigh-

~*~

Their glares locked, Ikuto's eyes remaining expressionless, while Arisa's shone with danger. Aika took a step back, slightly intimidated by the tension in the air.

"Hoshiwa Arisa, you are to join Easter whether you like it or not." Ikuto stated calmly. Arisa's face twisted as she looked at him, his eyes emotionless, "Eh? That's weird, because I really don't want to."

"Then fight."

Ikuto charged forward, his death scythe in hand, ready to slash anything in its way. But sadly for him, before he could reach Arisa who was awaker at the moment, his scythe was blocked by Aika.

Aika, who decided to intervene, grasped the flame sword in her hands tightly.

The collision of the two weapons suddenly generated…something and caused a really big explosion.

Once the dust and flames cleared, Arisa sat up, and looked around. Right next to her, was Ikuto's scythe implanted into the ground.

Several feet away from her was Ikuto with two scythes in his hands, connected by a chain and Aika standing across from him with her sword miraculously, still intact.

"What was that for you douche?!" Aika screamed at him, fuming.

Without responding, he dashed forward, swinging the connected scythes dangerously around him. Aika jumped out of the way, confused.

"Ikuto, what are you doing? I-if you keep attacking me," she dodged another attack, "I'm telling Utau!"

He stopped for a second, staring deep into her, but instead of responding to her question, he said, "Suzuki Aika, re-join Easter. You don't have a choice."

Aika tried ignoring her ever active conscience and charged again at Ikuto, without exchanging a single word to him.

Sparks flew, and suddenly, blood was drawn and Aika stepped back, quickly inspecting the wound at her side.

Though in that second, Ikuto launched his scythe at her, constricting her of any movements. She struggled in the metal chain's grasp, "Ikuto, stop!"

Her mind then became fuzzy as she started losing herself in her own thoughts. On the edge of consciousness, the last thought she felt was, "Why…"

But a split second before she could escape into unconsciousness, a sudden blast of blue energy shook her from her relapse. Aika's aqua blue eyes shot open and she was able to move her limbs freely. On the ground by her, was Ikuto, who was thrown over by the force.

She looked in the direction the blast had come from. Arisa, who was previously sitting dumbly on the ground, amidst the rubble around her, had character transformed with Koorei and held a pair of white shotguns with one of them pointed at Ikuto.

"Holy bageebers Aika, there's no point screaming if he's not going to talk back," Arisa stated lowering the weapon and reloading it.

Aika's eyes shone with worry as she stared at Ikuto. When she took a step forward to check on him, Arisa called her over, "Don't worry, I'm pretty sure these aren't lethal."

Ikuto's body suddenly shot up, launching the scythe at Arisa this time. She jumped up, and shot another blast at him, which he dodged.

"See Aika? If they were lethal, he wouldn't be trying to kill me right now!" Arisa called as she air-skated, with the flying scythe following closely behind her.

It trailed her through sharp turns, loop-de-loops and sudden drops. Though finally, the unexpected happened; Ikuto ran out of chain.

Arisa soared over to the Tsukiyomi who was holding the second scythe in his hand. When he swung it dangerously close to her, she flinched, but did her best to remain calm.

As he waited for her to make a move, she suddenly lifted one of her armed guns and pointed it at his face.

"ARISA!" Aika screamed at her.

"Chill Aika, I'm not going to shoot him since from this close, it'd probably be lethal." Arisa told her.

Aika shrank back, scared.

Arisa stared at Ikuto with a confused expression, looking into his dull eyes.

"Tsukyomi, what's your problem man? Just a few days ago you were messing with my head and calling me princess, but now you're attacking us like some mentally retarded weirdo!" Arisa scolded.

"…Join Easter."

The chain whipped around her suddenly, disabling any of her movements.

She gasped. Her ears could hear her Charas calling her name, trying to get her to change with them so could break out of her prison. But she couldn't even convince her vocal cords to vibrate and produce sounds. [Written by Mikomi-oneechan for me, cause she's awesome :3]

"AIKA; FREAKIN' DO SOMETHING!!"

The blue haired girl hesitated, staring at the scene in fear; her new friend in chains and her life long friend, the one constricting her. She swallowed hard, then shut her eyes. After a few seconds, she reopened them, twiddling with the pendant around her neck.

"Atashi no kokoro…UNLOCK!"

The pendant around her neck glowed orange and she was quickly engulfed by the light.

Ikuto stared in wonder and shock. From his previous experience with Aika, the last time she had transformed, her emotions became unstable and she went on a rampage.

He shook his head and scolded himself, _don't think; just fight._

The light particles dispersed and revealed Aika. Her hair was tied in two long pigtails and she wore a black graduation hat with a sun dangling from it.

She wore a white dress t-shirt with poofy sleeves and around her neck was a simple red tie that was tightly knotted. Below her dress shirt was a flappy red skirt and white stockings underneath with a pair of black dress shoes at her feet.

She glared hard at Ikuto, but inside she was deeply regretting what she was about to do.

Her arm stretched out to her side, a bright red light appearing and taking the form of a sword. Instead of being constructed of flames, the metal was shining with fiery colours. Surrounding her above her head, emerging from bright red flames were five extra-long, extra-sharpened, HB, regulated, yellow…pencils.

She held the sword in her hands, not really having much upper-body strength. She concentrated hard, resisting the power of the transformation from overcoming her mind.

Ikuto looked at her, trying his best to remain as thoughtless as possible. It was defiantly much easier hurting people close to you if you were brainwashed.

He summoned his original scythe in his other hand, while the other held onto the chain Arisa was struggling against.

Aika swallowed hard, nervous. Just then, the worst thing to happen; happened, her conscience had suddenly began nagging her.

_Aika, what are you doing? You can't hurt Ikuto! What about all the times he'd helped you, and what about all those times that he made you laugh? He's your FRIEND! You can't hurt him like this!_

A few tears welled up in her azure eyes, though her guilt-trip was suddenly interrupted by Arisa, crying out in pain.

"DANM IT AIKA! HURRY UP!!"

The chain tightened around her arms and torso, restricting little to no air flow through Arisa, but when she suddenly chocked, Aika ran forward, sprinting with all her might.

Her sword sliced through Ikuto's chain easily, her eyes burning with a familiar flame. She glared hard at Ikuto and dashed at him. Though she wasn't very good at sports, she was an incredibly fast runner.

Ikuto's eyes widened with shock and fear all at once. He released the sliced chain and brought the scythe up in front of him in order to block the attack, and to attack back.

But before he could even comprehend it, Aika had side stepped behind him and held the sword high over her head, her eyes burning with a killing intent.

For the first time in a long time, Ikuto was scared; scared he was going to die, scared he was going to loose his friend, and scared to have lost his life to his best friend.

Bracing for the impact, he squeezed his eyes shut. In the background, you could hear Arisa shouting at Aika, demanding for her to stop. Aika's mind was dark and empty; no thoughts going through at all. It was final; she had gotten completely possessed just like the last time she had ever transformed.

-

**Please review! They excite me xD**


	16. Six Pages of Flashing Back

**Okay, so thanks to some people (CLAUDINE) I'm uploading the next chapter now xD But you'll have to wait for the next one (HA HA!) **

**So this chapter is just a flashback…a 6 page long flash back. But still a flashback! And no, you don't get to see what happens to Ikuto yet ;D Aika's apparently a smart-ass when she's 10 though XD**

_**I do not own Shugo Chara! All I own is Arisa and the 'plot' of the story.**_

x-Chapter 15-x

-x-

**A. R. I. S. A.: 6 Pages of Flashing Back**

_Purple. Chocolate. Stars. _

**-Flashback-**

_A loud beep was heard from the P.A. system above her. _

_Suzuki Aika, age ten was standing feebly in the center of a well constructed training stimulation room in the sub-basement of the Easter headquarters in Tokyo. Her two charas, Haruhi and Tsuki hovered close to her by her side._

_She looked around the room with wide eyes. After her father had admitted to his debt with Easter, they decided that if he gave his daughter (who coincidentally had charas) and have her work for them, he'd be able to pay off the debt and his family would be free. _

_Some plan that was._

_Her knees trembled beneath her as her ears were filled with loud beeps and scary voices and her vision could see nothing except for the cement, white walls surrounding her._

_Suddenly a booming voice above her said, "Suzuki-san, prepare yourself."_

_The lights in the room dimmed and two metal doors at the sides opened. From the door, came two swarms of X-eggs angrily screeching, "USELESS! USELESS!" _

_Her usually cheerful blue eyes widened and were filled with fear. She shrank back, and whipped her head in both directions, panicking._

"_Aika-sama!" Haruhi called._

_Aika turned to her with wide eyes. She wasn't able to think straight and it was getting hard to breath._

"_Aika-sama, we need to transform!" Haruhi called again. _

_Her other chara; Tsuki, who was normally as mellow as a cucumber was thoroughly terrified at the current situation. He had long retreated into his egg since Haruhi's transformation was the one being tested. _

_Easter had labelled him 'unnecessary' since his power wasn't very…powerful._

_Not knowing what to do, she shank down as the presence of the X-eggs. She knelt down on her knees and forced her hands over her ears in a vile attempt to muffle the cries and screeches of the X-eggs. _

_They whizzed in all directions around her head, screeching angrily all the pent of feelings of their owners. Arisa cringed and curled up tighter. The noise surrounding only got louder and suddenly she couldn't take it any longer._

_She slowly stood up, keeping eye contact with the cement floor beneath her. _

_Her eyes connected with her sun-themed chara's golden orbs. Aika's aqua eyes looked nervously at her chara, who gave her a reassuring look. Aika then looked up at the glass window where several men in white lab coats and holding clipboards. _

_She glared at one man, who was sitting in a leather seat smoking a cigar. He smirked when they eyes met. She glared harder then she looked back at Haruhi._

"_Atashi no kokoro…unlock," she muttered reluctantly. A second before the transformation began, she fidgeted with the pendant around her neck._

"_Finally," grumbled the man in the leather seat._

_An ensemble of fiery colours surrounded Aika for a minute or so. When she appeared, she stood in her transformation costume and the pendant around her neck glowing a faint shade of red. _

_She summoned the sword and charged at the X-eggs. Though in her mind, she was panicking mess, her actions were stimulated by Haruhi's character, making her more confident and energetic. _

_She slashed relentlessly at the X-eggs surrounding her, further angering them. _

_The man above smirked deviously and tapped the residue off his cigar onto the floor. Taking another puff of smoke, he sighed, "Remove the seal."_

_One of the people-in-lab-coats pressed a button the control panel in front of him and the pendant began to let off a soft hum._

_Below, Aika was having quite a good time; purifying eggs and knowing she's saving someone's dream. The purified eggs escaped through a crack in the wall, but the remaining X-eggs continued to attack._

_A thin layer of sweat formed on her forehead and she wiped it off hastily, scowling. 'I'll really need a shower after this,' she thought._

_During the process, as she dashed from one sector to another, she felt her worries disappear and Haruhi laughed in her mind and she couldn't help but laugh as well. _

_She was having such a good time that she could barely notice the soft humming of the pendant growing louder with the passing minute._

_Finally, Aika had finished purifying every last X-egg she was put against. She flipped a stand of hair out of her face and smiled contently._

_As the last purified egg escaped the room, she waved cheerily at it, "Ja ne tamago-chan!~" _

_With all the X-eggs gone, the entire containment was silent, and that was when she noticed the pendant. She turned around quickly, nearly loosing her balance. _

_She stared up at him; Gozen, the man holding her father's life. _

_He waved carelessly at her, and she grabbed the pendant and tried getting off her, but it was no use. The metal was welded at the end. _

_She would never be able to take it off._

_Before she could demand what was happening, her mind suddenly became foggy and a loud electronic screech was heard in her ears._

_She fell to her knees, shaking. She was scared; terrified; afraid. She just wanted to leave, to never have accepted the offer, but now, it was obviously too late._

_When she stood back up, she could hear Haruhi's voice in her mind, fading away, as if she was being erased. _

_Aika's blue eyes opened and appeared to be glazed over. Something in her ticked and then…she lost control of herself._

_Metal doors opened, more X-eggs rushed in and Aika was back slashing at them, but instead of purifying them like she had intened, when she slashed at a few X-eggs grouped together, their shells shattered and fell to the floor in a jumbled mess of glowing black and purple pieces and white; turning grey; turning black X's._

_She wasn't thinking. She couldn't even feel what was going on around her. _

_Seconds passed, then minutes, finally after about an hour, the remains of the X-eggs carpeted the ground, ominously glowing purple. _

_She felt light headed. She felt Haruhi leave her mind, then with that; she passed out._

_-_

_When she awoke, she was in an infirmary bed with bright white lights above in an otherwise dark room. Aika remained laying down, staring at the ceiling. She turned her head to the side, seeing her two eggs on the small table next to her, she sighed of relief._

_She remained lying in the surprisingly comfortable bed, trying to recall the previous events. _

_Eventually, she plainly gave up and sat up, her hands getting to work to straighten her hair. Forcefully pulling the thin, medicine smelling sheets off her, and grabbed the eggs off the table._

_The cold of the ceramic floor shocked her feet, but she continued her trek out of the building._

_She walked carefully through the halls, making sure she didn't see any of the employees who had worked with her. She snuck through the corridors, humming the Mission Impossible theme in her head; she couldn't help it, and refrained from humming out loud._

_Eventually, after following many exit signs and arrows, she exited through the back door of the Easter building. Her sneakers padded quietly on the puddle covered sidewalk. She sprinted away from the building, making sure to avoid any security cameras she spotted._

_She ran until her breath came in heavy pants. She situated herself on a wooden bench in the middle of a busy shopping center. _

_Her charas took that moment to peek out of their eggs at their owner._

_Her usually straight, well combed hair was messy and sticking out in places they never thought possible, she had bags under her eyes from the lack of sleep and she was slouched on the bench, uncannily resembling a hung over, commuter._

_Before they could say anything; a tall, teenaged figure shadowed above her. _

_She cracked one of her azure eyes open to see the one and only Tsukyomi Ikuto looming above her with a cheeseburger in one hand and his violin case in the other._

"_Aren't you that new kid at Easter?" He asked, taking a bite out of his cheeseburger._

_Aika grumbled miserably and nodded. She was dead tired, all she wanted to do was go home and sleep, but she obviously couldn't. There were Easter goons all over her family's property. _

"_Hm… okay. Ja." He walked off with Yoru who trailed behind him, "Ikutoooo! Wait up nya!" _

_As he strode away, Yoru trailing helplessly behind him, he heard a soft, female voice, "Baka…"_

_He turned in interest, cocking at brow in her direction, "Hm?" _

_Using the dwindling amount of strength inside her, she stood up at shot at, "Baka; how can you just leave a girl practically unconscious on a bench! We're on the same side so you should at least help me out!!"_

_He stared boredly at her, "Do I really have to?" _

_She pouted and sat back down. Ikuto just stood there, a few away from her as silence consumed them both. _

_Breaking the silence, Aika asked, "You're being blackmailed into working for Easter too, right?"_

_An uneasy look crossed his features, lines forming around his mouth where a frown formed. In a vain attempt to hide it he scoffed and turned away, "In a sense," he replied coolly. _

_Aika twitched, "You know Ikuto…I've been thinking…" she paused, then stood up and stared up at him, "WHY ARE YOU ALWAYS ACTING SO COOL? IT'S IRRITATING!"_

"…_What?" Iktuo asked, momentarily weirded out by her random burst of hyperness._

"_YOU HEARD ME! LOOK AT YOU WITH YOUR…BLUE HAIR!" She demanded, pointing at his face in an accusing manner._

_He sweat dropped and muttered, "You have blue hair too…"_

_Aika looked appalled. "Don't change the topic! And I've seen how you act around people; being mysterious and cool and stuff is SOOOO last year! Maybe you should take up sports or something! Get a hobby!"_

"_My hobby is violin," he replied simply._

"_A DIFFERENT HOBBY! Why don't you try tennis? Though I've never really liked tennis, I kept getting hit by the ball…"_

"…"

"_Or swimming? What; are you scared of water or something??" _

"_Aren't you?"_

"…_NOBODY NEEDS TO KNOW ABOUT THAT!!! You know what? I have a better idea!" She lunged forward and grabbed Ikuto's chara, Yoru. _

"_YOU SHOULD BE MORE LIKE YORU!"_

"…_Nya?" Yoru asked, confused._

_Ikuto sighed with a mixture of annoyance, amusement, and an incoming headache._

"_Look at him! The fangirls eat up his adorableness for breakfast, lunch and dinner! If you were more like him, you'd be so much cooler!"_

_Ikuto twitched. His chara; cooler than him? Impossible._

"_And besides," she continued, "Yoru works the midnight blue so much better than you do. Right Yoru?"_

_Instinctively the little cat agree, "Yup, nya!"_

_Ikuto twitched. Why was HIS chara on HER side again??_

_He watched the two grinning madly at him. Aika was obviously doing her best to keep her enthusiasum at its highest peak._

_There was an awkward pause, then Aika threw Yoru over her shoulder, "But anyway you should really find another hobby besides violin or else you'll grow up as a creepy pervert who stalks and molests girls younger than him!" __**(cough cough hint hint nudge nudge AMU)**_

_One of Ikuto's ever-popular smirks tugged at his lips as he shot back, "Well I __would__ think it's entertaining to tease you, but it's boring when they don't have enough energy to fight back."_

_Aika's face flushed slightly and she screamed, "YOU THINK I'M OUT OF ENERGY??" _

_Her sudden exclamation caused several bystanders to turn to look in their direction. After acquiring several odd looks, she prepared herself to run. _

_To prove her point, she jumped to her feet and began sprinting from one end of the long hall to another and bounding onto his back after he removed it and set it on the floor, watching the blue haired girl with much amusement. _

_When she was finished, she was panting on his back, and finally; passed out. _

_He carefully picked up his violin case and strode off, managing the addition of weight. He felt her shift slightly, her longhair beginning to tickle his cheek. He nudged her slightly and thought, she can't be as bad as she could be. Maybe a little on the crazy side, but that's where Utau came in._

_Meanwhile, Aika dozed contently against the warmth of his shoulder muttering something about Cinnabuns and ducks. _

_In Ikuto's book; they had become friends._

-

**Review to kill this fly who's pissing me off right now!**


	17. The Fight Recommences

**Here's the next chapter for you all to devour! Enjoy more action! And you people get to find out what happens to Ikuto. **

**And in other news I'm all lonely here…my bunny's staying at my friend's house while I'm vacation and he had to go early to make sure he doesn't fight with her rabbits (but I think he might). And my brother and dad are out watching District 9, so I'm all aloooone. **

**Reviews keep me company though :D**

_**I do not own any part of shugo Chara!**_

x-Chapter 16-x

-x-

**A. R. I. S. A**

The Fight Recommences

_Purple. Chocolate. Stars_

Ikuto could feel the heat of the sword right as it was about to come in contact with his skin.

It was all Easter's fault this was happening; it was their fault Aika was spinning out of control and their fault he would die.

For the longest second in Ikuto's life, the burning heat nearly seared his skin when…

Aika suddenly changed transformations and instead of being stabbed by a burning sword, he was whacked by a giant, white pillow twice the size of him. **(The mental image is hilarious. Ikuto getting owned by a giant pillow! :D)**

The fluffy object knocked him over with a soft poof and settled on top of him with Aika sitting triumphantly on top of it, grinning like a maniac.

Arisa's eyes were as wide as UFOs at Aika. Just a moment ago, she had gone clinically insane, she had nearly killed someone.

Once Ikuto managed to escape from the…fluffy soft prison after closely dodging a shot from Arisa, he sped off and Aika's giant pillow disappeared along with her transformation.

For a little while they both just stood there, catching their breaths and making a dire attempt to soak in the previous events.

Breaking the silence, give or take early morning birds chirping, Arisa brother the silence, "Can we hurry? Cause…if we don't get to school in 4 minutes, we'll be late, AND screwed."

Aika gasped as Arisa took the blue haired girl by the hand and pulled her along in the direction on the castle like school.

Though the jog there would've been quite relaxing, Arisa thought. There were many birds around them singing their song, the sun cast warmth across her face and the air smelt sweetly of dew and flowers.

But the main thing bothering her at the moment, destrupting the wonderful scenery was Aika.

"I'm sorry Arisa, it's all my fault! He's after me because of my crazy past with Easter and—"

"Shut up man, it's nto a big deal. School's not really tha big of a thing for me anyway," Arsa cut her off for…who knows how many times.

Right when Arisa thought it was going to be silent, Aika broke out once again.

"AAAHH!!" she screamed fearfully.

-"WHAT??" Arisa demanded, shocked by the sudden noise.

"I JUST REALIZED I HAD PERFECT ATTENDANCE FOR MY WHOLE LIFE!"

Arias blinked a few times, silent. Finally she sighed and continued on shaking her head helplessly.

"Gomen ne Arisa…" Aika muttered.

"What the freak are you apologizing for?" Arisa asked, probably sounding a bit harsher than she intended.

"…..I'm sorry…"

Arisa sighed deeply. She can't hide it any longer; this girl was absolutely hopeless.

Yet another silence followed. They walked at a steady pace at the top on a hill where they were able to see the second floor of Seiyu Academy.

A look of sudden realization crossed Aika's face. "Arisa…?"

The brunette inwardly groaned, but she couldn't get mad; that'd make her mean, and how can you get mad at a girl who'll just shower with apologies seconds after?

"Ne, what did we have for homework?" She asked, like her previous gloom fest had never happened.

Arisa took a second to remember the mental list she always kept somewhere deep, deeeeeeep down in her brain. It took a moment then the loading bar in her brain finally finished loading and she spoke. "The retarded math thing, the English assignment and the science sheet, but that's not due today."

Oh yeah, in her mind, she's a genius.

Aika didn't even hesitate to ask her next question, "Did you finish them?"

"I think so…" Arisa didn't like where this was going.

"Me too, but," not the 'but', "—but I think my English assignment is too long. Can you tell me if it's okay?" With that, Aika pulled out an immense stack of paper. It was a wonder about how she was even able to keep it in her bag without having it burst open.

Arisa's face practically paled at the sight of the size. "I-I'm sure it's fine. Nikaidou-sensei's pretty chill about homework anyway…" she managed to stutter out.

"Are you sure??" Aika demanded.

Arisa shrugged, "Not really."

She watched from the courner of her eye as she saw Aika physically deflate. Taking her by the arm, Arisa dragged her friend the rest of the way to school.

Finally, they arrived (on time mind you). Arisa, still tired as ever, made her way over to the soccer field to find her friends while Aika ran in the direction of a group of girls she has met the previous time she was at school.

The bell rang, and Arisa limped to class, leaning on Daisuke, and being supported by Hikaru.

"Arisa-kun, it's like you just ran a marathon then climbed a mountain with a bag of bricks and survived," Hikaru stated, adjusting his hold on her.

She groaned miserably, "Dude, you've got no idea."

Grumbling tiredly the entire way, they finally reached the classroom.

They flopped Arisa down onto her chair and scruffed her head a few times then walked off to their seats.

She (to the best of her current state) looked up at the clock; Nikaidou was defiantly late for class.

Just as she was about to doze off to sleep, she was approached by something horrible, something treacherous, something…that I'm failing to describe at the moment!

One of the giggle-ish girls. (insert dramatic music here)

"Ne, ne, Arisa-chan?~" she of them chirped. Arisa glanced up at them and inwardly groaned.

"'Sup?" She greeted.

"I was wondering if you understood the homework from last night," She said, fidgeting with the cutely designed pencil in her hand. That was Sakura Ikazu. She sat in front of Arisa and usually understood most of the work. It was strange for her to ask others about homework.

Arisa hesitated for a moment, then pulled her notebook from her desk.

Though she hated math with a burning passion, she understood it. …You can stop laughing now, it's not that funny. Actually she got an A+ on it last year.

She briefly explained the process of…something, and when she was done, she shut her book and tossed it onto her desk.

"Any questions Ikazu-san?" Arisa asked sleepily, yawning slightly.

The girl nodded, fixing her hair for a moment, "Would you want to go shopping with me and some friends after school?"

Arisa cocked a brow, personally wondering if she was serious. From a seat behind her, she heard Hikaru and Daisuke snickering loudly. Arisa scowled at them, rolling her eyes.

"Sorry Ikazu-san, but I'm not really up for that kind of thing," Arisa rejected as kindly as she possibly could.

The other girl's lower lip jutted out, forming a pout. "Okay…" The girl sauntered off with her notebook in hand, walking up to Aika who was surrounded by a group of girls.

Arisa collapsed dramatically onto the desk, shutting her eyes momentarily though her would-be-nap was obviously interrupted by the non-stop chitter-chatter of the female component of the class.

"Suzuki-chan, your previous classmates are so funny!" one of them chirped happily at Aika, as the new student's face flushed a light shade of pink.

"And I can't believe your sister; she sounds so cute! I wish my sister could be like yours," another crooned.

Aika reddened even more to the complements.

"And you're so lucky to have gotten close to Hoshiwa-san," a third girl noted quietly. Aika turned to her in curiosity. Arisa opened her eyes in interest as well.

"Why's that?" Aika asked carefully.

"Since she's s close with Hikaru-kun's group, you get to be close to them as well!" She chirped excitedly.

Aika looked over at Arisa worriedly. Arisa just rolled her eyes and nestled herself deeper in the nest her arms created.

Eventually Nikaidou finally entered the room flushed, and his clothes wrinkled and messier than usual.

"A-ah! Ohayo minna-san!" He greeted dumping the books onto his desk with a bang. Arisa's head shot up, but when she realized the source of the sound was _just_ a bunch of books, she collapsed back down. She clearly agreed with Tsukiga, sudden loud noises can suck it.

During the lesson, the class was deathly quiet; so deathly, Arisa was threatening to fall asleep in her seat at any moment. But before she could, the bell signalling the start of lunch rang.

She got up slowly, and made her way out of the classroom to get her lunch from her locker.

Upon retrieving it, she encountered someone she was obviously not prepared to see.

"Eh…Kuukai, what do you want from me now?" She dragged.

He smiled brightly, "I just thought I'd tell you to cancel all your after school plans for tomorrow." Arisa stretched her arms above her and yawned.

"And why is that, Souma-kun?" She inquired, suspicious.

She watched as he reached into the back pocket of his pants, and pulled out a pair of light blue slips with small writing written neatly on it.

"Because," he said in a sing song voice, "Rika-chan invited us to go see her ice competition audition tomorrow after school!"

Arisa took a moment just to remember who Rika was. Don't you remember? She was the girl who they met at the ice rink and had a Kuukai-complex and was always decked out in something gold to match her hair and eyes.

Arisa thought for a moment, and then agreed. It's not like she had anything better to do anyway.

Kuukai smiled enthusiastically then waved her farewell as he sped out of the building. Arisa waved slowly back at him, fighting the urge to smile, if not just a bit.

During lunch, she followed the usual sequence of events; sit with guys, throw food at girls, have girls scream at you, over-hear overflowing complements about Aika; again.

"Aika-chan, I also heard that you're really good at speaking French!" A girl squealed. Aika looked a bit uneasy, but agreed anyway. "Y-yes, that's true, but really I'm not that good…"

'_I know French too, but that doesn't matter since Aika's probably better than me anyway!' _Arisa thought bitterly. After consuming the last bite of her lunch, she stood up, causing the surrounding males to look at her.

Lately, they've been idolizing her more and more; it was caring her.

"I'm going to head over to Moon Class, don't wait up. And if you want, you can terroize the chicks while I'm gone." She tied the black sweater around her waist and packed up her lunch exiting the classroom. The group cheered wildly, though when Daisuke went to high-five Ryu, he caught him staring over at the group of girls.

"So Aika-san," Amu broke in, startling the females. Aika looked up innocently at the pinkette.

"What do you think about Tadase-kun?" She asked sourly.

The surrounding girls ooh-ed and aah-ed at Amu's 'courage' for asking such a question that everyone supposedly knew the answer to.

"Well I defiantly don't like him _that_ way!" The crowd's stares' expressions remained indifferent.

Before she could say anything else, Tadase approached them, looking at Aika.

"Ah, Suzuki-san, here," he handed her an envelope with her name written on it. "Come to the Royal Garden after school."

-

**Reviews bring my bunny home! xP**


	18. Just Another Guardian Meeting

**IIIIIIIIIIII FAAAAAAAAAAAIL SOOOOOOO HAAAARD. **

…

**But it's hard to write a chapter with school and stuff!!!!!!! (and my other stories) but…yeah that's the lamest excuse ever. **

**So; –bows- I apologize for making my readers wait so long! There should be no excuses why this is updating so late! (I feel like those male Japanese students who are always so noble and official…and hot.) And even though it's painfully late, please enjoy the chapter. Thank you!**

**And if I really did take THAT long to update, please re-read the previous chapter so that you can remember what happened last XD**

_**I do not own Shugo Chara! Or any of its sparkles. **_

Questionable Content

_.Purple. Chocolate. Stars._

Chapter 18: Just Another Guardian Meeting

Arisa fumbled with the strap of her leather bag as she stumbled out of the main building as the freeing bell of the end of the day rang in her ears. Once the strap got across her shoulder properly, she sighed happily, and jumped off the second to last stair of the stone stair case.

She waved to Ryu and Daisuke who walked home together and high fived Hikaru who was took the transit home.

Today, Arisa finished all her work in class, and when she got home, she planned to plant herself in from of (Rento's) TV and blow shit up until maybe, dinner time. Then after dinner, she planned on jacking the freezer of its strawberry popsicles and just lying on the couch for the rest of the night while she witnesses in Unkai's (awkwardly) utter fascination with Project Runway.

Arisa beamed, all those ideas sound amazing and she was really tired from school and the…no work they did since Nikaidou decided to play it easy today and let them have 'study time'. Which also means nap time for him while he hides behind a copy to the daily newspaper, reading the back of his eyelids.

But doing nothing can be really tiring you know! For example, Arisa had to go for 3 hours straight without doing ANYTHING. Only because there was nothing to do anyway.

But she instantly shoved away all the negative thoughts about her day (plus, she heard Tsukiga got to blow stuff up in science) and welcomed all her plans back into her mind. If she were able to hang out with Hiro, then she would've started skipping.

It was a shame how much Hiro worked though. No matter how much she thinks of him as a slacker, he's the student council rep, he's going for the Japan-wide math competition, he does sports and is the MVP for at least ¾ of them and he even volunteers with her dad from time to time. Yes, he was such a loser.

And due to his over-working, he hasn't been able to hang out with Arisa properly. Which made her even boreder.

Her shoulders hunched slightly; yes, that popsicle sounds really good right now.

But suddenly, the sound of _Shootin' Your Smile_ by Aiba Hiroki came blasting from her back pocket. At first, she ignored the fact that her phone was ringing, and just figured she was just hearing the song in her head. But when her butt started feeling vibrations, then she knew it was her phone after all.

"Moshi moshi," she greeted shakily. She was in such a rush that she barely had the time to look at who the caller was.

"Arisa-san, we have a meeting in the Royal Garden now. Did you forget?"

The suddenly aggravated brunette recognized that snobbish, nosy (, nasally) voice clearly. "No I didn't, you little pink bus stop. It simply slipped my mind."

"Che, whatever. Just get over here; we're all waiting for you." Then with that, Amu hung up.

Arisa couldn't help but roll her eyes. That little b—us stop. Oh yeah, and Suusui's trying to get Arisa to cut back on swearing.

Arisa snapped her phone shut and jammed it back into her back pocket. She turned on her heel and proceeded glumly towards the Royal Garden.

-

Once she passed the main building of the school, taking a quick glance at the soccer field, she noticed a splotch of blue dressed in red, wandering aimlessly, as if they were lost.

Oh Aika.

"Ne, Aika, looking for something?" Arisa asked, popping up from behind the other girl's shoulder. Aika's shoulders tensed up and she let out a surprised yelp.

"Mou Arisa-chan, don't scare me like that!" she exclaimed, clutching her bag tightly.

Arisa laughed and waved her hand, dismissing the subject. "So seriously, you seem lost. Where are you headed? Or did you forget where you live?"

Aika laughed lightly and pulled the envelope out of her bag, explaining to Arisa how Tadase approached her during lunch and gave her the envelope. Her agile fingers ripped the paper apart, stuffing the scraps into the small pocket of the uniform skirt.

"A-Arisa-chan! I don't know if I were supposed to open it or—"

The brunette shook the envelope towards the ground and peered inside. "Empty. Jeez; paper-wasting Guardians." Once Aika breathed a sigh of relief, Arisa handed the envelope back to Aika and signalled her to follow the slightly taller girl towards the glass green house, which is humid as hell whenever the sun's even out but also has the best cookies to eat within a 10 kilometre radius, also known as, the Royal Garden.

Arisa pushed the door open and greeted anyone who was inside, "Oiiii~"

All the Guardians were doing the usual, sitting around the table, with shojou sparkles all around them, sipping tea like they were rulers of the world…no pun intended. Aika followed Arisa closely as she walked to where the Guardians were.

"Aah, Suzuki-san. I'm glad you made it," Tadase greeted with his charming, princely smile.

Arisa flashed a peace sign at Tsukiga and Shinyu who were in the middle of a dramatic game of Go-Fish and waved at the rest of the Guardians, but not Amu of course.

"So Suzuki-chan," Nagihiko started, smiling warmly at her, "Have you decided?"

All eyes turned to the blue haired girl as she fidgeted with the bag in her hands and her eyes darted in every direction nervously. "U-uh, not really. I wanted to ask some questions before I decided though."

Rima sat back and crossed her arms, in an almost pompous manner, "Fair enough. Ask away." Arisa gave the short girl, sitting or not, a playful smack on the head to remind her not to be so full of herself.

Ignoring the overly obvious glares between the queen and extra, Shinyu leant onto Tsukiga's chair and spoke out, "Yeah, ask away. Since I'm your senpai, it's my duty to answer any questions you may have!"

"Oi Shinyu, do you have any 7's?"

"DAMN IT!"

Aika stared dumbfounded. If this is what the Guardians were made of, they were screwed.

She waved Arisa over, and successfully got her away from a feisty looking Rima.

"So Arisa-chan, should I join the Guardians?" She asked quietly, once they walked a few feet away from the chatting group.

"EH?" Arisa exclaimed. She raised both her hands, acting as if to shield herself from the question. "Really Aika, I should be the last person you ask a question that important! Plus, it's not in my place to decide you know!"

Aika shrunk back slightly and sighed. There was a tense silence between the two, until Aika insisted, "But I really want to know your opinion on this."

After a look on uneasiness crossed Arisa's face, she shrugged and said, "Well if you want to, you can join. They don't do much anyway…"

Aika nodded and thought it over some more, while Arisa returned to the Guardians.

Eventually, Aika returned to the table and announced that she'd join, at the same time admitting that she isn't used to important responsibilities such as this. Some withen the crowd couldn't decide whether to take it as a bad thing, or an interesting quirk of inexperience.

Tadase reassured her that she'd be fine, which she replied with a weak smile on insecurity. An extra chair was pulled out of no where (Nagihiko's obviously magic) and Aika sat on it. Not soon after, Arisa offered to switch with her, insisting the artistic design on the back of her chair was far more comfortable than the one Aika was sitting on.

The meeting continued as usual, Yaya breaking out into random screams, Nagihiko calming her down, Rima sending sideways glares at a certain newbie and muttering about how the Guardians were too soft, Tadase going into world domination mode, Tsukiga blasting her MP3, Shinyu eating her pretzels and Amu…eh who cares.

Anyway, the meeting continued as usual; and nothing productive was done.

It was about 5:00 when Tadase got the bucket, and the rest of the Guardians got their minds focused onto the topic of the day (really, it's the same topic everyday) Easter.

Everyone was huddled around the glass table, where the dish of cookies had been removed since it was devoured within the first 10 minutes of the meeting. Tadase sat with a pristine air and his hands folded. His face was serious as he began the discussion.

"There's been a rumour circulating the area that Easter has a new target, besides the Embryo," he stated.

"Does that mean they don't want the Embryo anymore?" Yaya exclaimed, surprised.

Nagihiko shook his head, "I think that they think that they found something better than the Embryo." There was a suspenseful pause between them as thought of what on earth could be more valuable than the Embryo through the eyes of Easter.

Then out of nowhere, Tsukiga broke the silence, "Or that rumour's just a load of B.S." Arisa snickered at her choice of words and Shinyu nodded, considering the fact to be true.

"But Arisa-chan, don't you remember what happened with Ikuto?" Aika asked.

All eyes turned to the blue haired girl, and Tadase's stare hardened at the sound of the teenager's name. "What happened?"

Aika's expression suddenly turned to a nervous one when she felt the questioning stares directed towards her. Clearing her throat, she continued with the most confident voice she was able to maintain.

"T-this morning, while Arisa-chan and I were walking to school, we were approached by Ikuto, in his Death Rebel transformation."

"Eh!? Ikuto-kun?" Amu gasped, surprised.

"Yeah dumbass, weren't you listening to the first and only sentence?" Arisa said, effectively insulting her.

"Then he attacked us and demanded that Arisa joined Easter. But also…" Aika's words faded and everybody leaned in, in a vain attempt to hear her words.

"What did you say Suzuki-san?" Nagihiko asked calmly, but Aika chose to remain silent.

Sensing a tense atmosphere around the group, as Aika fidgeted with her hands in her lap, Arisa leaned her chair back, balancing on the two back legs and declared, "Whatever, she'll tell us when she wants to."

The Guardians turned to Arisa. "Aren't you worried about Ikuto though?" Amu demanded.

"About his well-being; not so much. But if he's doing to screw my life up, along with my friends, then I'll personally go and punch him in the face."

"I believe now would be a good time to plan our next move of Easter. Since we have one too many motives, I think we should strike in Spring, right after spring break," Tadase announced officially.

"Hm. That sounds good. I say we go for it," Rima agreed, crossing her arms daintily. Shinyu and Tsukiga nodded and Aika agreed as well.

"Wait! What about Ikuto? We can't hurt him!" Amu exclaimed, standing up abruptly and slamming her palms onto the table.

Arisa rose as well and mirrored her action. "No, _you_ can't hurt Ikuto, but if he messes with my friends, whether it's his fault or not he's going to pay. And the big cheese who's controlling him is going to pay even more."

"Yaya agrees with Arisa! We can't have Easter hurting our friends!"

"It may seem kind of selfish that Arisa's so pissed off that they're messing with us, but I guess I'm flattered," Tsukiga said quietly. Shinyu chuckled, but in her mind, she was grinning evilly, thinking of the varieties of revenge she could form against Hamagichi.

"But I don't remember Aoisora-san mentioning Easter targeting her…" Amu muttered. Tsukiga perked up at the sound of her name, but shrunk back down into her seat when she heard the topic.

Shinyu sent a worried glance at Tsukiga, who seemed to be glaring at an innocent teacup.

Arisa and Aika shared a confused look, but decided to leave it alone. Arisa knew better; if Tsukiga didn't want to talk about something, then you'd leave her alone, no questions asked.

The silence was broken by Nagihiko, "So since this is our second time infiltrating Easter, we'll know the area better and maybe we'll even have the advantage of surprise."

"Not with me here you won't," came a smooth voice from above them.

Everyone turned towards the ceiling to find the blue-haired cat boy sitting ideally at an opening on the ceiling, with his ever cocky smirk on his face. You'd think that with a smirk like that he'd find out his worst enemy's weakness. Well he did.

Kind of.

-

**Feel free to ****criticize, because I know this chapter isn't that good…at all. It was boring wasn't it? I think my friends who own the OCs would enjoy it, but I apologize for all you others who have to sit through this painfully en-eventful chapter D: **

**But reviewing really helps me improve! You can also send some ideas because…I'm not that good at thinking of them sometimes. **


	19. Never Really The End

**I'd apologize, but there's nothing to apologize for. Let's just say this story couldn't have worked out. If you'****ve read Shugo Chara Encore, then you'll get it when I say I don't want to go against the authoress' wishes. And her wish is to have Kuukai and Utau canon. I'm not complaining really. I'd never finish this story to begin with. So many chapters were planned, but they're irrelevant now. **

**So think of this as a gigaaaantic time skip to this chapter. **

**It's also dedicated to all my friends who I may never see again, and also the ones I'll see on Friday. I wrote it thinking of you and not him.**

**I don't even want Shugo Chara anymore :P So it's not mine. Obviously. **

It was late in the afternoon with the sun high in the sky. Arisa stood quietly with her luggage at her feet and fidgeting with the phone in her pocket.

"Don't worry Ari-kun, I'm sure he'll be here any second," Hikaru reassured while Ryu and Daisuke nodded in agreement.

Even Sion, who was now clinging to Kaidou's arm agreed, "That's what he did when I left Tokyo!"

The brunette willed a weak smile over her face. She glanced at the stairwell hoping, almost begging for the familiar face to come rushing up the stairs and proving her worries wrong.

An awkward silence followed through the group. Shinyu who stood by Tsukiga and Aika reached forward for yet another hug. They had lost counting about an hour ago.

"So you enjoyed your time in Tokyo right?" she asked, voice almost breaking.

Arisa couldn't help but smile, "I'll never be the same." Which was completely true. She had too many experiences to ever change.

"Plus, you got to meet so many _awesome_ people," she added jokingly.

The sound of Kaidou's phone beeping caught her attention. "I just got a text from him. The dweeb is on his way right now." Arisa really, really hoped so, but deep inside, she gave up hope; she knew.

_I'll be meeting up with Utau quickly __before we see you off. You know how the traffic is, but I'll be there._

She stopped listening after 'quickly'. She already knew there would be no chance, but at that moment, saying her heart shattered would be a cliché, and it saying it broke would be an overstatement. If anything, a giant mass of disappointment settled itself into her chest and refused to move even as she replied with a smile, "No problem."

Arisa patronized herself for not realizing it sooner. The signs of attraction were just so _obvious._ All those times she felt like a third wheel or all the nights he was in the kitchen 'studying', it was all for her. And how can she even blame him? At least Hoshina-san isn't some sorry, little pink haired mouse who couldn't stand up for herself for shit.

Utau had every right to be confident with herself. She was famous, pretty, strong (he admitted it himself), down to earth and sweet when she wasn't assertive. When Arisa realized it that day, it felt like she'd been part of some triple kill-headshot-tea-bag combo.

Then again, Cal of Duty sounded rather appealing at the moment.

It gave her the chance to escape the reality where nobody harboured romantic feelings for her. But while she couldn't blame a thing on the boy, the only thing she can do was thank him. He had given her the chance to be in love and fall out of it a lot less painfully than how other relationships end. Theirs never even began.

And while she'd like to go on hating his guts, she couldn't bring herself to be the attention grabbing, self pitying girls she'd known.

Her inner monologue was interrupted by the final call for boarding the train. Arisa hugged her close friends tightly and allowed the Souma brothers to ruffle her hair affectionately. With the sweet words she received from all of them, plus their warm smiles and sincere wishes, Arisa figured it out; she didn't need _him_.

Now she felt like an asshole neglecting her friends while they cried tears for her. Instead she only focused on some _ass_ who didn't even bother to reschedule his date with his precious _girlfriend_ to see her off.

As she was lifted off the ground by Unkai, and hugged by Ryu, she decided, _screw him_. She had all she needed there with her. Finally she lifted her bag off the ground and smiled a final farewell, feeling the tears fall down her cheeks.

The train ride was far too quiet. With her friends, it was never quiet. Someone was always screaming or someone was always being yelled at. But when Arisa's phone chirped to life, she nearly fell out of her seat at the familiar ring tone of _Check Yes Juliet. _

_Sorry I couldn't__ make it. I really tried to, but I'll miss you. Have a safe trip. Utau says bye too._

She never knew she could close her phone so quickly.

Eventually, her mind adjusted to the silence of the train. As she drifted off to sleep, she realized that she hadn't shed a tear for Kuukai that day. Maybe in the past, but the past is irrelevant.

Only for her friends; the ones who truly cared for her and the ones she held dear until their final moments together. They were the only ones worth shedding tears for. Not tears of 'a happy ending', but tears of a 'to be continued'.


End file.
